2017 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Bridging the vocabulary gap for English as an Additional Language learners: Establishing an EAL word list
| Project/Area Number |
17K03035
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| Research Institution | Doshisha University |
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Principal Investigator |
ブルックス ギャビン 同志社大学, グローバル・コミュニケーション学部, 助教 (10610818)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
CLENTON JONATHAN 広島大学, 総合科学研究科, 准教授 (80762434)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | EAL / Vocabulary / International School |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
We have completed pilot tests and an analysis of the tools we will be using for our research including testing the version of the C-Test that we will be using with Japanese students and two different versions of the Vocabulary Levels Test. We have also finished our pilot project at an international school in Japan. Results were promising and inline with our initial expectations. They seem to indicate significantly lower mean scores for EAL learners for all measures, and significant correlations between vocabulary knowledge and linguistic proficiency measures. A multiple regression analysis showed that of all of the factors affecting EAL students' academic performance by far the most statistically relevant was their scores on the new vocabulary levels test (nVLT). Furthermore, when the same analysis was performed on the scores achieved by the L1 English speakers and the bilingual students vocabulary was no longer seen as a statistically significant predictor of academic performance, which seems to indicating that vocabulary knowledge is more important for EAL students then their L1 English speaking counterparts. Mirroring earlier research, our findings indicate that both research on the importance of vocabulary and further support for the teaching of vocabulary is important if we want EAL students' to be able to succeed academically.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
While the pilot project went well it took longer than expected to receive permission from the parents at the school to conduct the assessments on their children. This has been taken into account for the larger project by significantly simplifying the consent form and improving the wording so parents are better able to provide informed consent.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
We are in the process of approaching other schools to begin assessment of a larger number of students vocabulary and academic and linguistic abilities. At the same time we are collecting the materials required to create the corpus needed to build an academic word list for EAL students.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The AAAL conference in America fell on the last month of the research year. The addition 2,941 remaining was due to the fact that we slightly overestimated the amount it would cost to attend the conference.
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