Lexical richness in academic papers: a comparison between students’ and lecturers’ essays

Abstract

In the area of writing, research has yet to explore EFL learners' ability to use varied vocabulary. Although vocabulary teaching has enriched learners' knowledge of lexical items, whether they can use the words they have learned remains to be seen. It is important, therefore, to investigate their lexical richness in their academic writing. Lexical richness, defined as the presence of different words in a text, is commonly measured through type-token ratio (TTR). The present study set out to identify the lexical richness of senior students by comparing them to academic papers written by their lecturers. There are four objectives: (1) to determine the difference between the type-token ratio (TTR) in students' essays and that in their lecturers' essays; (2) to determine the difference between the use of 2000-word level (henceforth K2) in students' essays and that in their lecturers' essays; (3) to determine the difference between the use of academic words in students' essays and that in their lecturers' essays; (4) to determine the difference between the students' essays and their lecturers' in terms of the use of words other than the 2000-word level and the academic words (designated "offlist words"). The essays written by the respondents were submitted to a website for vocabulary profiling (http://www.lextutor/ca/vp). This analysis shows that the lecturers fare better in terms of TTR and academic words, but write slightly fewer 2000-word level and off-list words than their students. While the differences in TTR and academic words are significant, the differences in the use of 2000-word level and off-list are not significant. The subsequent discussion addresses possible causes of these differences, and offers some implications for the teaching of vocabulary and writing.

Lexical richness of newspaper editorials published in Southeast Asian countries

“…English vocabulary falls into two major categories: high-frequency words, that is, words that appear very frequently in almost all kinds of discourse, and lowfrequency words, that is, words that appear very infrequently across all texts. The highfrequency words are divided further into a 1000-word level and 2000-word level (Djiwandono, 2016). Lexical richness has attracted many linguists to explore, mostly in academic written products area, but to the best of the researcher's knowledge, no study has been conducted by choosing newspaper editorials as the subject.…”

“…Lexical richness has attracted many linguists to explore, mostly in academic written products area, but to the best of the researcher's knowledge, no study has been conducted by choosing newspaper editorials as the subject. Djiwandono (2016) identifies the lexical richness of senior students' writing production by comparing them to academic papers written by their lecturers. The analysis shows that the lecturers are better in terms of type-token ratio (or TTR) and academic words but write slightly fewer 2000-word level and off-list words than the students.…”

“…Studies of lexical richness have been conducted by many linguists, especially in academic writing products. Djiwandono (2016) investigates EFL learners' ability to use varied vocabulary to determine the difference between the type-token ratio (TTR), the use of 2000-word level, and the use of academic words in students' essays and that in their lecturers' essays. The results show that the lecturers far better in terms of TTR and academic words, but write slightly fewer 2000-word level and off-list words than their students.…”

Investigating lexical diversity and lexical sophistication of productive vocabulary in the written discourse of Indonesian EFL learners

“…Although the investigation of lexical knowledge has gained its popularity in several countries, there is still a limited amount of such kind of research carried out in Indonesia. The most recent study is conducted by Djiwandono (2016) within the context of tertiary education that compares the lexical richness of the academic papers written by Indonesian EFL lectures and university students. In addition, to the best of my knowledge, the study on measuring lexical knowledge that looks at language output conducted within the scope of Indonesian EFL learners at secondary school level has not yet been substantial.…”

Lexical Richness of Students’ Writings

“…Meanwhile, (Milton, 2008) states that, "Measuring the vocabulary richness of learners can helo give a much better impression of the scale of learning which is taking place than is possible with other measures of language proficiency." Hoover (2003) as cited in (Djiwandono, 2016) defined the lexical richness as the ratio of types of words to total words (token) written in a text or TTR. In details, (Djiwandono, 2016) explained that, "Type refers to the types of words, while token encompass the total number of words used in a particular text."…”