Measuring Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition

Measuring Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition describes the effect that word frequency and lexical coverage have on learning and communication in a foreign language. It examines the tools we have for assessing the various facets of vocabulary knowledge, the scores these produce, and the way these are tied to exam and communicative performance.

James Milton worked in Nigeria and Libya before coming to Swansea University where he established the Centre for Applied Language Studies and the Department of Applied Linguistics. His research and teaching focuses principally on vocabulary acquisition and measurement in foreign languages. This research is combined with commercial EFL textbook writing. Recent books include Modelling and Assessing Vocabulary Knowledge and Studies in First and Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition.

James Milton worked in Nigeria and Libya before coming to Swansea University where he established the Centre for Applied Language Studies and the Department of Applied Linguistics. His research and teaching focuses principally on vocabulary acquisition and measurement in foreign languages. This research is combined with commercial EFL textbook writing. Recent books include Modelling and Assessing Vocabulary Knowledge and Studies in First and Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition.

In this volume, Milton meticulously connects research on corpus linguistics, SLA, and testing and advocates for establishing reliable units of measurement of vocabulary size as a cornerstone to furthering understanding of second-language (L2) vocabulary development...Throughout this cutting-edge volume, Milton highlights pedagogical, methodological, and theoretical implications while also cautiously reminding readers of intervening factors in establishing connections between vocabulary frequency with vocabulary knowledge.

Visnja Pavicic-Takac, Faculty of Philosophy, J. J. Strossmayer University in Osijek, Croatia:

This book tackles the ever-intriguing, yet often staggeringly underestimated subject of measuring second language vocabulary development. By adeptly coalescing the second language acquisition theory with the state-of-the-art vocabulary research, along with an original evaluation of the position of vocabulary in general language assessment, Milton convincingly demonstrates the weight vocabulary [measurement] carries in foreign language learning and teaching. Written in a wonderfully systematic and appealingly reader-friendly way, this volume is an especially valid contribution to the field, as well as an indisputable resource and guide for all those interested in exploring any aspect of foreign language vocabulary development.

Andrew Cohen, Second Language Studies, University of Minnesota, USA:

This volume represents a much needed update on issues in assessing vocabulary. It displays the empirical grounding and rigor that only an established scholar like James Milton can provide. A refreshing aspect of the book is that the author questions even the most basic preconceived notions that scholars and teacher practitioners might have about what it means to know a word and to assess this knowledge, and that he reports on the results of his inquiry in an honest and even-handed way.