A Comparison of the Use of Lexical Words in Study Abroad and At Home Contexts

Mi-Yang Cha (차미양)

A Comparison of the Use of Lexical Words in Study Abroad and At Home Contexts

Modern English Education
Abbr : MEESO
2010, 11(2), pp.216-234
Publisher : The Modern English Education Society
Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Language Teaching

Mi-Yang Cha ¹

¹남서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study compares lexical words used by two groups of students in different learning contexts: one studying English abroad (Study Abroad) and the other learning in Korea (At Home). While the study abroad (SA) group spent the fall semester of 2008 in a language exchange program at a university in the Philippines, students of the at home (AH) group were chosen from writing classes offered at a university in Korea during the same semester of the year. Written data from 54 students (27 in each group) were analyzed before and after the treatment period to discern differences between the groups in the use of the lexical words, and statistical analyses were carried out. The results of the study showed that compared to the AH learners, the SA students were found superior in their control over the words, producing higher frequencies of the words of more diverse types with a high type-token ratio in sentences. Also, the SA participants appeared to have attained greater lexical gains, generating longer sentences embedded with multisyllabic, less-redundant and more complex words after the treatment period. The findings of this study revealed a significant effect for the learning context on the use of the lexical words.

KEYWORDS

Learning context/ study abroad/at home/ vocabulary

Citation status

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