An Empirical Study On The Correlation Between Vocabulary Knowledge And Language Proficiency

Nowadays, vocabulary is no longer viewed as a yes/no question, but as a multidimensional construct. Researchers and teachers need to know the two dimensions (size and depth) as well as two perspectives (passive and active perspectives) of vocabulary knowledge.This thesis sets out to investigate the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and language proficiency from both two dimensions and the two perspectives. The following questions have been put forward in the research:First, what is the relationship between vocabulary size and language proficiency? Second, what is the relationship between vocabulary depth and language proficiency? Third, what is the relationship between vocabulary size and depth? Fourth, what is the relationship between passive and active vocabulary knowledge?The following conclusions have been reached after the experiment:First, the relationship between vocabulary size and language proficiency is influenced by language proficiency.Second, passive vocabulary knowledge is significantly related to language proficiency for elementary learners, while active vocabulary knowledge is related to language proficiency only on the condition that the words are used correctly.Third, meaning and adjective-noun collocation has not developed at similar rate. On the other hand, learners'active vocabulary size and active vocabulary depth are related only when their language proficiency has improved to an advanced level.Fourth, learners'passive and active vocabulary size are related only on the condition that their language proficiency has developed to an advanced level, while their passive and active vocabulary depth are related for all learners.