Language classes are expected to foster the growth in the size of students’ vocabulary, first rec... more Language classes are expected to foster the growth in the size of students’ vocabulary, first receptively and then productively. Recent test data have indicated a significant growth in students’ productive – as opposed to receptive – vocabulary size in the course of one academic year (Hajiyeva, 2015a). This study investigates the relative pace of the growth in the size of productive vocabulary; it includes data for free productive vocabulary knowledge with the intention of exploring the growth in students’ vocabulary after ten months of instruction. This required a measurement of the lexical richness as expressed in students’ answers to examination papers. The results show that due to increased exposure to various subjectspecific courses, students increase their productive vocabulary knowledge. The findings also indicate that such growth does not ensure that students’ written answers to examination papers are always accurate in terms of meaning, form, associations, collocations and register. The potential implications of the findings for language teaching and learning are discussed briefly. Key words : lexical richness, productive vocabulary, academic words, lowfrequency words, answers to examination papers
From the communicative-cognitive point of view, it is necessary to look at dialogic discourse as ... more From the communicative-cognitive point of view, it is necessary to look at dialogic discourse as an active phase of the transition of language skills to speech skills. In this regard, discourse is considered as the articular form of consciousness consisting of a set of knowledge that motivates the speech activity of the interviewees. This empirical study draws on recent developments in dialogic approaches to learning and teaching and explores the relationship between the dialogic discourse pattern and improvement of the students’ participation and learning in an online EFL context. Developments in the dialogic teaching from two perspectives, namely didactic and psychological are reviewed and necessary preconditions and rules for the teachers to have a dialogical discourse pattern as an approach to classroom interaction are considered. It is assumed that when clearly defined, rules for a dialogic discourse pattern can lead to the development of students’ overall performance and mainl...
Studies show that measuring the size of learners’ receptive and productive vocabulary has to be ... more Studies show that measuring the size of learners’ receptive and productive vocabulary has to be an integral part of any needs analysis. However, this kind of study has never been conducted in Azerbaijan. To fill this gap, a quantitative study administering two vocabulary tests was carried out with 159 first-year English majors at the Azerbaijan University of Languages. The results show that the students’ vocabulary size does not attain the minimum standard as proposed by Laufer and Ravenhorst-Kalovski (2010), which is defined as 4,000–5,000 word families. Their receptive vocabulary size was found to be less than 50 per cent of the minimum standard for word families, while their productive vocabulary size falls considerably below the acceptable level of word families. It is argued, consequently, that English majors in this group of Azerbaijani students need strong support in their acquisition of high-frequency words and academic vocabulary in order to be adequately and suitably prepared for their academic studies.
Language classes are expected to foster the growth in the size of students’ vocabulary, first rec... more Language classes are expected to foster the growth in the size of students’ vocabulary, first receptively and then productively. Recent test data have indicated a significant growth in students’ productive – as opposed to receptive – vocabulary size in the course of one academic year (Hajiyeva, 2015a). This study investigates the relative pace of the growth in the size of productive vocabulary; it includes data for free productive vocabulary knowledge with the intention of exploring the growth in students’ vocabulary after ten months of instruction. This required a measurement of the lexical richness as expressed in students’ answers to examination papers. The results show that due to increased exposure to various subjectspecific courses, students increase their productive vocabulary knowledge. The findings also indicate that such growth does not ensure that students’ written answers to examination papers are always accurate in terms of meaning, form, associations, collocations and register. The potential implications of the findings for language teaching and learning are discussed briefly. Key words : lexical richness, productive vocabulary, academic words, lowfrequency words, answers to examination papers
From the communicative-cognitive point of view, it is necessary to look at dialogic discourse as ... more From the communicative-cognitive point of view, it is necessary to look at dialogic discourse as an active phase of the transition of language skills to speech skills. In this regard, discourse is considered as the articular form of consciousness consisting of a set of knowledge that motivates the speech activity of the interviewees. This empirical study draws on recent developments in dialogic approaches to learning and teaching and explores the relationship between the dialogic discourse pattern and improvement of the students’ participation and learning in an online EFL context. Developments in the dialogic teaching from two perspectives, namely didactic and psychological are reviewed and necessary preconditions and rules for the teachers to have a dialogical discourse pattern as an approach to classroom interaction are considered. It is assumed that when clearly defined, rules for a dialogic discourse pattern can lead to the development of students’ overall performance and mainl...
Studies show that measuring the size of learners’ receptive and productive vocabulary has to be ... more Studies show that measuring the size of learners’ receptive and productive vocabulary has to be an integral part of any needs analysis. However, this kind of study has never been conducted in Azerbaijan. To fill this gap, a quantitative study administering two vocabulary tests was carried out with 159 first-year English majors at the Azerbaijan University of Languages. The results show that the students’ vocabulary size does not attain the minimum standard as proposed by Laufer and Ravenhorst-Kalovski (2010), which is defined as 4,000–5,000 word families. Their receptive vocabulary size was found to be less than 50 per cent of the minimum standard for word families, while their productive vocabulary size falls considerably below the acceptable level of word families. It is argued, consequently, that English majors in this group of Azerbaijani students need strong support in their acquisition of high-frequency words and academic vocabulary in order to be adequately and suitably prepared for their academic studies.
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