Lexical Development of English Major Students
A Study Based on Written English Corpus
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/ijeh.v2i3.338Keywords:
Lexical development, Lexical richness, English majors.Abstract
Lexical evaluation has become undoubtedly one of the cornerstones in the study of second language learning. Not only can it cast some light on the process of second language learning, but also help us gain some insights into the shared characteristics of language learners. Based on a self-built corpus of 120 English timed compositions on the same topic written by 30 Chinese English majors throughout their four-year undergraduate study, this paper tends to explore the features of lexical development in English writing by English majors. The findings are as follows: a solid lexical development in general increases along with the grade, but the progress is not straight-line. Academic word lists present a linear increase; the lexical variation is also rising and learners have a wider range of words to choose from. However, compared with the lexical variation and lexical sophistication, lexical density shows a slower increase. In addition, some high-frequency words are overused by the students in their writings.
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