Taking a closer look at vocabulary and academic literacy levels of undergraduate students
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Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Namibia
Abstract
This paper reports on a study conducted in 2011 with undergraduate
students at the University of Namibia (UNAM). One of the aims of the
study was to assess the vocabulary and academic literacy levels of the
students, as well as to examine the relationship between vocabulary
knowledge and academic literacy. The multi componential aspect of
vocabulary knowledge coupled with the fact that university students need
a large vocabulary (relevant to their academic context and purposes for
reading) in order to fully understand their texts which are written in a
language which for the majority is an additional language (AL), has led
to a re-evaluation of current practices. Two research instruments were
used to obtain data: the receptive vocabulary levels test (VLT) and the
test of academic literacy levels (TALL). Findings paint a bleak picture of
English mid frequency word knowledge of first year students at UNAM.
Data also showed that not all students who enter university have
adequate vocabulary knowledge to participate in the academic discourse
prevalent at university. This dispels the assumption that students
entering university have adequate vocabulary knowledge. The TALL
results showed that the students’ academic literacy skills were not very
strong, revealing inadequate academic literacy skills to cope with the
academic demands of university. This result shows the relevance of
introducing academic literacy tests at UNAM, to provide scientific and not
just anecdotal evidence to prompt management to spend the necessary
resources (financial and human) on the design and implementation of
standardized tests assessing academic literacy levels, which
Description
Keywords
Vocabulary knowledge, Word frequency levels, Vocabulary size, Academic literacy
Citation
Izaks, J.N. (2016). Taking a closer look at vocabulary and academic literacy levels of undergraduate students. JULACE: Journal of the University of Namibia Language Centre, 1(1), 56-86.