Vocabulary Profile as a Measure of Vocabulary Sophistication

Su‐Youn Yoon · Suma Bhat · Klaus Zechner

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Second Language Acquisition and Learning EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Natural Language Processing Techniques

Abstract

This study presents a method that assesses ESL learners ’ vocabulary usage to improve an automated scoring system of spontaneous speech responses by non-native English speakers. Focusing on vocabulary sophistication, we estimate the difficulty of each word in the vocabulary based on its frequency in a reference corpus and assess the mean difficulty level of the vocabulary usage across the responses (vocabulary profile). Three different classes of features were generated based on the words in a spoken response: coverage-related, average word rank and the average word frequency and the extent to which they influence human-assigned language proficiency scores was studied. Among these three types of features, the average word frequency showed the most predictive power. We then explored the impact of vocabulary profile features in an automated speech scoring context, with particular focus on the impact of two factors: genre of reference corpora and the characteristics of item-types. The contribution of the current study lies in the use of vocabulary profile as a measure of lexical sophistication for spoken language assessment, an aspect heretofore unexplored in the context of automated speech scoring. 1

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References

1995Vocabulary Size and Use: Lexical Richness in L2 Written Production 2004Exploring measures and perceptions of fluency in the speech of second language learners 2011The Relationship of Lexical Richness to the Quality of ESL Learners’ Oral Narratives 2002Speaking and Writing in the University: A Multidimensional Comparison 2003Lexical Richness in the Spontaneous Speech of Bilinguals 2002Quantitative assessment of second language learners’ fluency: Comparisons between read and spontaneous speech 2000Coming to grips with lexical richness in spontaneous speech data 2003Vocabulary profiles as predictors of the academic performance of Teaching English as a Second Language trainees

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