Victoria Zaytseva

The present study examines the development of second language (L2) vocabulary in writing comparing two different learning contexts, formal instruction (FI) at home followed by a 3-month stay abroad (SA). Data were obtained from a group of 30 Catalan/Spanish advanced learners of English before and after each learning period by means of a written composition. These compositions were analyzed quantitatively in terms of lexical measures in various domains, such as diversity, density, sophistication and accuracy. Baseline data from 29 native speakers of English, elicited through the same task, were also used for comparison purposes. Our results reveal that the different aspects of lexical proficiency in L2 writing do not develop in the same manner across the two learning contexts. While SA is particularly beneficial for lexical diversity, lexical accuracy seems to flourish after both FI and SA learning periods. Learners also achieve more native-like behaviour in terms of spelling and lexical sophistication after SA. These findings are interpreted together with the relevance of the selected measures used in the study.

While there is ample evidence that study abroad (SA) enhances oral fluency in a foreign language, the effects of different types of learning context on other aspects of oral skills, such as vocabulary use, have not received much attention in academic research and are less clear. The present study tries to fill this void by investigating lexical development in oral production by advanced learners of English experiencing two different contexts of acquisition: formal instruction (FI) at home, followed by a 3-month stay abroad (SA). Speech samples were elicited from a group of 30 Catalan/Spanish undergraduates before and after each learning context by means of an oral interview and were later analyzed in terms of lexical diversity, sophistication, density and accuracy. Additionally, we examined baseline data from 25 native speakers of English, elicited through the same task. Our results reveal that both contexts enhance significant development in lexical accuracy and that SA proves especially beneficial for growth in adverb density, which moves towards target-like norm and adds fluidity to learners’ speech. FI, in contrast, causes a significant impact on lexical sophistication, as learners seem to acquire more specific vocabulary during classroom instruction.

The present study investigates the effects of two subsequent learning contexts, formal instruction (FI) at home and a 3-month stay abroad (SA), on vocabulary acquisition in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing and speaking. Data were collected from 30 Catalan/Spanish learners of English before and after each learning period using a written composition and an oral interview. These samples were examined in terms of quantitative measures of lexical proficiency in the domains of diversity, sophistication, density and accuracy. Native-speaker baseline data were also obtained through the same tasks for comparison purposes. Results reveal that SA is particularly beneficial for written productive vocabulary, and less so for oral, and that progress occurs especially in lexical diversity. FI, however, shows a modest effect on the improvement of oral productive vocabulary and affects namely lexical sophistication.