Differences between phonological and orthographic vocabulary knowledge among L1-Spanish learners of English as a foreign language

Abstract

The vocabulary size of language learners might predict their success in a second language because of its strong correlation with better performances in that target language (Zhang & Zhang 2022). Although previous research has claimed that aural and written vocabulary are two aspects of vocabulary knowledge that need to be estimated separately, very few studies have examined this issue from an empirical perspective. This paper presents the possible differences in size between the phonological and orthographic vocabulary among learners of English as a second language. A bilingual vocabulary test was delivered, first orally and then in writing, to 209 adult learners in Spain. The refined version of the instrument, showed reliabilities ranging between .79 and .92. Statistical analyses confirm that language learners know fewer words in their aural form than in their written form regardless of the frequency of the word or the learner’s language level. This finding supports the claim that aural and written vocabulary are two separate aspects of knowing a word and impacts on how vocabulary should be taught in L2 classrooms.