L2 Word Knowledge Acquistion

Based on the word knowledge framework and semantic network theory, this research is oriented to explore the development of the depth of vocabulary knowledge. This research has investigated how 3 types of word knowledge, namely meaning, synonym and antonym, are acquired both receptively and productively by Chinese EFL learners at three different proficiency levels. 90 high school and university students are tested on their receptive and productive mastery of meaning, synonymy and antonymy for each of 6 high-frequency words.The raw data are analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The following major findings are obtained: 1) Generally speaking, vocabulary size is significantly correlated with all the word knowledge types both receptively and productively. However, this doesn't mean a larger vocabulary size will necessarily lead to deeper word knowledge. 2) On the whole, there is a developmental pattern of word knowledge acquisition through different proficiency levels. The receptive word knowledge develops most saliently at lower proficiency level, while the development may slow down or even have a slight sliding-back after EFL learners reach the intermediate level. The productive mastery develops most greatly at a higher proficiency level. 3) The productive mastery lags far behind the receptive mastery, which is the case for all 3 word knowledge types. 4) The acquisition of meaning is far better than that of synonymy and antonymy, while there is no regularity between the acquisition of synonym and that of antonym.