_________________________________________________________________________Swansea University E-Theses Vocabulary acquisition of English as a foreign language in the Hungarian public sector. Orosz, Andrea Erzsebet How to cite: _________________________________________________________________________ Orosz, Andrea Erzsebet (2014) Vocabulary acquisition of English as a foreign language in the Hungarian public sector.. thesis, Swansea University. http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42477 Use policy: _________________________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence: copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. The copyright for any work remains with the original author unless otherwise specified. The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder. Permission for multiple reproductions should be obtained from the original author. Authors are personally responsible for adhering to copyright and publisher restrictions when uploading content to the repository. Please link to the metadata record in the Swansea University repository, Cronfa (link given in the citation reference above.) http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ Vocabulary Acquisitioo of English as a Foreign Language in the Hungarian Public Education Sector Andrea Erzsebet Orosz Submitted to Swansea University in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree ofDoctorate of Philosophy Swansea University 2014 ProQuest Number: 10801707 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10801707 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract The research in this dissertation is the first attempt in Hungary to reveal language learners’ language proficiency in the public education sector through a vocabulary size test as an alternative method. Based on the assessment of vocabulary in learners’ coursebooks, the analyses of teacher talk and the answers in learners’ informal strategy questionnaire reveal the possible sources through which the learners’ can get an access to new vocabulary and also what they do themselves in order to acquire new words in- and outside of the classroom. The results of this research can prove that even the Hungarian language learners’ English language knowledge can be at a considerably good level. The starting point for the research was that both language teachers and students have been evaluating the Hungarian learners’ English language knowledge as insufficient, despite the relatively many English classes in the public education. This negative assumption has been supported by the data of Eurostat (2009) statistics, which says that the Hungarians are the last ones in Europe concerning their foreign language knowledge. There has also been guessing that the Hungarian learners’ English knowledge does not meet the international standards and like this it is falling behind foreign students’ English language knowledge. The results show objectively how Hungarian learners’ knowledge compares with other learners in other countries from the point of view of English as a foreign language. The current dissertation is hoped to be a substantial contribution to the field of teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Hungary, in particular, and to the field of second language vocabulary acquisition, in general. Acknowledgements Undertaking this PhD has been a truly life-changing experience for me and it would not have been possible to do without the support and guidance that I received from many people. I would like to first say a very big thank you to my supervisor Professor James Milton for all the support, criticism, academic rigour and encouragement he gave me, during the long years I spent undertaking my research. Without his guidance and constant feedback this PhD would not have been achievable. Professor James Milton has been intellectually demanding and lexically stimulating, and I feel extremely fortunate to have been his student. I would like to thank Jim for his truly inspirational teaching and research. Most importantly, as a supervisor, he was always there, which I think is quite remarkable. Thank you, Jim, for everything you have done to help me. Doing a distance PhD at Swansea also means appreciating the contribution of many different CALS staff members. I would simply like to say a huge thank you to everybody working in CALS for being such a motivated/-ing group of teachers and researchers. I would also like to voice my thanks to my fellow PhD students who have shared fascinating questions, feedback and help. My thanks also go to the many students and colleagues who took part in the different studies that I did. I would like to express my special thank to Dr. Tibor Gera, the Headmaster of the Eotvos Jozsef Secondary School in Szeged, Hungary, to Katalin Videki Flachne, the Headmistress of the Tabani Primary School in Szeged, Hungary and Gyorgyi Nemeth Ezumachne, the Headmistress of the Imre Madach English- Hungarian Bilingual Primary School in Szeged, Hungary that they allowed me to carry out my research in their schools. I am very grateful to Agota Erdelyi, the English teacher who helped me a lot and who let me observe her classes for research purposes and of course thanks to all the participating students, who contributed with their answers to the success of my dissertation. Last but by no means least, I say the most personal thank you to my mother from time to time taking over my responsibilities as a single mother, my two daughters, Andrea and Agnes who sometimes patiently and other times impatiently tolerated that I could not pay all my attention to them and my partner in life Antonio for always believing in me and encouraging me to follow my dreams. Neither words nor collocations could ever capture what I feel in recognition of your loving kindness, so I simply dedicate this thesis to all of you. List of Content .................................................................................................................... 1 List of tables, figures, diagrams and illustrations ....................................................... 4 Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreviations .................................................................... 6 Chapter one: Introduction .............................................................................................. 7 Chapter two: Literature review..................................................................................... 10 What is Word Knowledge? ................................................................................................11 2.1 What is a word and what is word knowledge? ...............................................11 2.2 Knowing a word ...............................................................................................13 Vocabulary acquisition.....................................................................................................17 2.3 Vocabulary size and its growth among native and non-native speakers of English .............................................................................17 2.4 Understanding lexical acquisition .................................................................. 21 2.5 Coverage and comprehension ........................................................................ 22 2.6 The role of vocabulary in the language learning process ............................25 Vocabulary testing............................................................................................................. 28 2.7 Vocabulary testing .......................................................................................... 28 2.7.1 Test reliability and validity ................................................................ 29 2.7.2 Content validity ..................................................................................30 2.7.3 Construct validity ...............................................................................31 2.7.4 Face validity ....................................................................................... 32 2.7.5 Concurrent validity .............................................................................33 2.8 Vocabulary size tests....................................................................................... 34 2.8.1 Vocab Size test (Beglar and Nation 2007 on Cobb 2014) .............. 34 2.8.2 Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) (Nation 1983, 1990)......................35 2.8.3 Yes/No tests Meara and Jones (1990) Meara and Milton (2003)... 37 2.8.4 A_Lex, the aural vocabulary size test (Milton and Hopkins 2005) 41 Vocabulary Teaching and Learning ..................................................................................45 2.9 Learning L2 vocabulary