A Study On Depth Of Vocabulary Knowledge And Language Proficiency Of Chinese Vocational College Learners

This study is based on the dimensional approach of vocabulary knowledge framework put forward by Richards, J. and Nation, P., and test format of John Read. The study concentrates on the qualitative aspect of vocabulary acquisition of Chinese EFL (English as foreign language) learners of vocational colleges. It aims to get an insight into their depth of vocabulary knowledge, and the correlations between vocabulary knowledge and language proficiency.181 sophomore vocational college students of non-English majors from six intact classes in Xuzhou College of Industrial Technology took part in the investigation by finishing test paper: (a) the word associates format ,including 30 commonly used adjectives as tested words, as the measure of collocation and synonym ; (b) morphological knowledge test, including 30 stimulus words to test the word formation of noun, verb, adjective and adverb; (c) polysemous knowledge test, to test the polysemy of 8 high frequency words ; (d) the Practical English Test for Colleges (B) in the June of 2007, as the English proficiency test. After the data were collected, processed and analyzed by SPSS, the following findings were obtained:1. Generally speaking, the subjects acquire only about the half of vocabulary knowledge, the overall depth of knowledge level of the four types and the high frequency words is far from satisfactory. The synonym knowledge is best acquired; the morphological knowledge is the poorest.2. There is an obvious gap in vocabulary knowledge acquisition between good learners and poor learners. The most significant difference exhibits in the subjects' morphological knowledge. There are large gaps between students in individual knowledge, but their average level of the knowledge is relatively equal.3. The mean scores of female learners are higher than that of male in all the four aspects of knowledge, the great difference lies on the morphological knowledge. The gap within male learners is larger than that of female.4. The differences between the students of the humanities (secretary) and students of science (computer) are not very significant. Their language proficiency is at the same level, they use different methods to improve the English proficiency.5. The significant correlations among the synonymous, collocational, morphological, polysemous knowledge, total knowledge and language proficiency exist at various degrees. The total vocabulary knowledge and the four type of vocabulary knowledge are highly correlated; synonymous and collocational knowledge are more strongly correlated than other types of knowledge.Finally, on the basis of the findings, suggestions on how to improve vocabulary knowledge ofcommonly used words through teaching and learning and future researches are presented.The findings from this study not only confirm the roles of depth of vocabulary knowledge, but alsocall for recognition of the importance of improving depth of vocabulary knowledge in EFL learningprocesses.