Knoph, R. E., Lawrence, J. F., & Francis, D. J. (2023). The Dimensionality of Lexical Features in General, Academic, and Disciplinary Vocabulary. Scientific Studies of Reading, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2023.2241939
ABSTRACT
Purpose
There are many aspects of words that can influence our lexical processing, and the words we are exposed to influence our opportunities for language and reading development. The purpose of this study is to establish a more comprehensive understanding of the lexical challenges and opportunities students face.
Method
We explore the latent relationships of word features across three established word lists: the General Service List, Academic Word List, and discipline-specific word lists from the Academic Vocabulary List. We fit exploratory factor models using 22 non-behavioral, empirical measures to three sets of vocabulary words: 2,060 high-frequency words, 1,051 general academic words, and 3,413 domain-specific words.
Results
We found Frequency, Complexity, Proximity, Polysemy, and Diversity were largely stable factors across the sets of high-frequency and general academic words, but that the challenge facing learners is structurally different for domain-specific words.
Conclusion
Despite substantial stability, there are important differences in the latent lexical features that learners encounter. We discuss these results and provide our latent factor estimates for words in our sample.
Funders
This research was supported by the grant No. R305A170151 Improving the Accuracy of Academic Vocabulary Assessment for English Language Learners, grant No. R305A090555 Word Generation an Efficacy Trial, and grant No. R305A080647 Measuring the Development of Vocabulary and Word Learning to Support Content Area Reading and Learning from the Institute of Educational Sciences.22R. E. KNOPH ET AL.
Related
University of Houston AVEL page Improving the Accuracy of Academic Vocabulary Assessment for English Language Learners https://academicvocab.times.uh.edu/
Blog post about implication for instruction https://readingways.org/blog/teaching-academic-vocabulary-words
