The Relationship Between Vocabulary Knowledge And Oral Production Of Chinese EFL Learners Under Two Task Planning Conditions

The present research, conducted mainly on the theoretical basis of Levelt's (1989) model of speech production, information processing theory, the theory of memory and findings in word knowledge, was designed to explore the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and learners'oral production under two task planning conditions in the Chinese EFL context. In this research, the variables are lexical knowledge and learners'oral output under different task planning conditions.This study addressed the following research questions:(a) Does vocabulary knowledge in terms of scores on vocabulary size test predict oral English fluency under no planning condition and online planning condition?(b) Does vocabulary knowledge in terms of scores on the test of deep lexical knowledge predict oral English accuracy under no planning condition and online planning condition?To answer these questions, this research was first carried out to measure 59 participants'vocabulary knowledge. Then the subjects were evenly divided into two groups in accordance with their scores in the word tests, i.e. vocabulary size test and depth of vocabulary knowledge test. Second, the participants'oral production was recorded under different task conditions. The recording time was three minutes for each participant. Afterwards, these recordings were transcribed and coded on the ground of the appointed criteria. The correlational analysis of the collected data was put into operation in SPSS 15.0 at length.The results show that lexical knowledge in terms of scores on vocabulary size tests can, to a large extent, predict learners'oral fluency under conditions of both no planning and online planning, and confirm the role of depth of word knowledge in forecasting learners'oral accuracy solely under the condition of online planning. The role under no planning condition, however, turns out not to be statistically significant. The detailed study of the relationship between lexical knowledge and oral production, supported by statistical results, proves the role of word knowledge in enhancing learners'oral outcome. This therefore complements research on the correlation between vocabulary knowledge and language proficiency, and contributes, to a certain extent, to those who intend to improve their oral English.