It has been observed that kids from immigrant households speak the linguistic communication with a native -like speech pattern and eloquence without any job, while their parents still have jobs with speech production and hearing. The length of residence is the same for both the kids and grownups but the degree of ultimate attainment is different. The grownup scholars gain considerable vocabulary through engagement in English classs, reading books and magazines and watching movies, while their immature kids achieve tonss of vocabulary through informal activities on the resort area and exterior of the formal categories at school and increase their vocabulary size effortlessly.

This experiment is a case-study of an 8-year old male child from Iran. His first linguistic communication is Persian, which is historically and typologically different from English. The topic arrived in the UK at the terminal of September 2011 and started his academic twelvemonth in October of the same twelvemonth. He had non been immersed in English before geting in the UK at all. His vocabulary cognition sweetening was measured by an English version of the X-Lex trial ( Meara and Milton, 2003 ) and Lex 2005 Database by Dale and Fenson ( 1996 ) . The topic has been tested since February monthly until July 2012. Significant vocabulary additions were revealed by the terminal of an academic twelvemonth in a natural environment.

The findings from this article reveal that the sum of vocabulary which can be achieved through a natural environment is considerable, and is achieved faster and in greater sums than through linguistic communication categories for foreign linguistic communication scholars. This survey may be confirmed by Milton & A ; Meara ( 1995:31 ) who claim, “ Subjects learned English as a foreign linguistic communication five times faster than categories at place, around 2500 words per twelvemonth ” . Additionally, the findings show that frequence has a important consequence on the velocity of geting words. The first two 1000 words are acquired more rapidly as they are repeated and heard by the scholar more often.

At the terminal of September 2011, I came to the UK as a pupil with my household. My boy was sent to an English school cognizing no English at all. I observed him from the position of a individual who is really close to him and realised merely how fast he came up with linguistic communication without any trouble. There was a flash in my head as to whether I could mensurate his vocabulary size or whether I could detect the beginnings which he uses to larn new vocabulary in a 2nd linguistic communication. I questioned whether exposure to a new linguistic communication through submergence in school categories, on the resort area and in a natural environment, helps him to talk like or shut to a native talker.

Therefore I tried to happen how much vocabulary consumption could be expected for my boy during one academic twelvemonth. It is assumed that cognizing the vocabulary size of a scholar is a really important factor in foretelling the linguistic communication proficiency of a individual, as there is a close and strong relationship between the size of the vocabulary of a scholar and his accomplishments of reading, speech production, composing and listening. I surmised that the more vocabulary he would larn, the better the opportunities of him being a proficient talker.

In chapter two of this survey I will demo the background and the history of larning vocabulary and in the 3rd chapter I will explicate the chief purposes of this survey. The methodological analysis will be presented in chapter four through participants, the stuffs and the process. The information will be analysed in chapter five and will be discussed in chapter six.

Chapter 2

Literature Review

2.1. How of import is the vocabulary in larning another linguistic communication?

Learning a 2nd linguistic communication has a long background. It extends back at least to the clip of the Romans, and perchance before ( Schmitt, 2000:10 ) . After different attacks and linguistic communication instruction methodological analysiss had emerged, basic accomplishments were set up and the pupils were encouraged to analyze grammar. It was believed that Latin could increase the rational abilities of pupils ; therefore they started analyzing Latin. The survey of Latin grammar became a major mark and “ many grammar was written to sublimate English based on Latin theoretical accounts ” ( Schmitt, 2000: 11 ) . The text edition consisted of theoretical grammar regulations and sentences for interlingual rendition, and there were no allowances for talking abilities at that clip. The importance of vocabulary was non clear in different attacks with different positions.

Different attacks paid different sums of attending to vocabulary. Some of them neglected it while others valued it. Harmonizing to Bown et Al ( 1985 ) , in the 2nd century B.C. , where Hellenic was studied by Roman kids, vocabulary was extremely valued and some of the given texts given to kids provided assorted types of vocabulary under different subjects. Some of these theories “ were non grounded on any one scientific theory ( Pavici, 2008: 1 ) ” , such as the Grammar Translation Method, and some of these theories were based partly on linguistics and partially on general theories of larning like Audio Lingual. Audio Lingual is derived from the consequence of structural lingual and behaviorism methods and considers scholars as inactive receivers of the programme ( Pavicic, 2008: 1 ) . The importance of vocabulary in the Grammar Translation Method was merely met through bilingual word lists, as it was believed that the scholars would follow the instruction method and larn the mark linguistic communication in a simple manner, with less attending given to talking and listening ( Larsen-Freeman, 2000:18 ) . While by the terminal of the 19 century, methods such as the Direct Method used the 2nd linguistic communication as a agency to get vocabulary by puting accent on listening and talking. Vocabulary was presented through repeat and imitation utilizing duologues ( Larsen-Freeman, 2000: 45 ) . Another attack which had more focal points on vocabulary instead than on grammar is Communicative Language Teaching ( CLT ) . In this method, “ linguistic communication is for communicating ” ( Larsen-Freeman, 2000: 130 ) . Therefore the more words a individual knows, the better opportunity they have of being a more successful scholar. In add-on, in unwritten communicating, where there is dialogue of intending between talker and hearer, vocabulary consumption additions and the growing in vocabulary size has a close relationship with success in talking accomplishments. However, Schmitt ( 2000:14 ) argued “ CLT gives small counsel about how to manage vocabulary, other than as support vocabulary for the functional linguistic communication. ”

Harmonizing to Milton ( 2009:1 ) , “ much of the literature on 2nd linguistic communication acquisition as a general procedure, pays small attending to vocabulary acquisition ” while recent surveies present that less attending to larning vocabulary may impact the development of other facets of linguistic communication acquisition in learning programmes ( Milton, 2009: 3 ) . Ellis, N. ( 1997 ) confirmed Milton ‘s ( 2009 ) thought and argued that the other characteristics of linguistic communication proficiency such as grammar are dependent on the betterment of vocabulary.

Milton ( 2009 ) believed that there are three grounds for the deficiency of equal vocabulary instruction and acquisition. The first 1 is the importance of geting linguistic communication regulations and systems in structural attacks since the merchandise of them is obvious. Geting words is unsystematic and there are no clear regulations and systems for larning words.

The 2nd ground is the belief that limited vocabulary is sufficient to pass on. Harmonizing to Ogden ( 1930 ) , merely 850 words are adequate to learn a European linguistic communication. Harmonizing to Milton ( 2009 ) nevertheless, cognition of 1000s of words is necessary for even really indispensable communicating. The comparing of per centum coverage between a individual who knows 7000 words with a individual who merely knows 2000 is the grounds behind Milton ‘s claims. Harmonizing to Nation ( 2001: 144-153 ) , cognizing 6000 words and more can supply 95 % coverage of a text, which is about complete comprehension and makes a successful reader. However, cognizing 2000 means that 80 % coverage of the text will be provided, which may non be plenty to convey the whole significance of the text. Although 80 % seems rather a batch, it is of import to see that many of these words might be grammatical words ; hence overall text coverage will non be plenty for equal comprehension. Laufer ( 1992 ) argues that the lower limit acceptable receptive cognition to understand a text is the most frequent 3,000 word households.

The 3rd issue takes into consideration the belief in different attacks that vocabulary instruction is a waste of clip as few words are taken from learning vocabulary explicitly and straight ( Harris and Snow, 2004: 55 ) . Ellis, R. ( 1994: 24 ) argued that much of the vocabulary learned is taken from unwritten input ; hence the best manner to cover with vocabulary is non by learning pupils in the categories but through exposure to the linguistic communication in their milieus. Milton ( 2009: 2 ) criticized these thoughts and believed ; “ vocabulary consumption from truly incidental linguistic communication exposure is normally negligible and that successfully learners get big volumes of vocabulary from the words explicitly taught in the schoolroom. ”

Fortunately, ” vocabulary has recently gained popularity in the general field of English linguistic communication instruction and acquisition and go a invitee of honor ” ( Coady and Huckin, 1997 cited in Erten & A ; Tekin, 2008 ) . Therefore, the scholar ‘s vocabulary size is now seen as an of import step of linguistic communication proficiency, although it has been ignored in Second Language Acquisition ( SLA ) research for a long clip. Recently, there has been more attending to analyzing vocabulary at an academic degree and a few research workers have started to advert it as one of the most of import parts of larning any linguistic communication. Richards and Long ( 2007: 228 ) regarded vocabulary acquisition as “ the nucleus constituent of all the linguistic communication accomplishments ” , every bit good as Milton ( 2008 ) who indicated that “ vocabulary acquisition is an indispensable component of larning a foreign linguistic communication. ”

2.2. How much vocabulary can be learnt at the terminal of an academic twelvemonth in a natural environment by a scholar?

One of the purposes of this survey is to happen the figure of words which the immature linguistic communication scholar has learnt by the terminal of an academic twelvemonth in a natural environment ; hence it is really important to happen a response to these inquiries. First, ‘how many words are at that place in the mark linguistic communication which the scholar is larning? ‘ Second, ‘how many words does the native talker cognize? ‘ Third, ‘how many words are needed to make the things that a linguistic communication user demands to make? ‘ ( Schmitt & A ; McCarthy, 1997: 5 ) .

Each linguistic communication consists of 1000s of words. A word can be defined as “ the smallest meaningful unit of linguistic communication ( Carter, 1992 ) ” . The lexical unit of any linguistic communication is an abstract unit which consists of different orthographic, phonological, grammatical and semantic characteristics of a word ( Pavicic, 2008: 5 ) . Harmonizing to Nation ( 2001: 6 ) , there are around 114,000 word households in Webster ‘s Third International Dictionary. Learning these Numberss of vocabulary is rather beyond the imaginativeness, non merely of 2nd linguistic communication scholars, but besides of most native talkers. Golden, Nation and Read ( 1990 ) estimate an grownup college pupil knows between 3,000 words to 216,000 words, and Nation ( 2001: 9 ) suggested that educated native talkers of English know about 20,000 word households. Harmonizing to Golden, Nation and Read ( 1990 ) , “ native talkers add an norm of 1,000 word households each twelvemonth of their early life ” , therefore the topic should larn around 1000 word households in the academic twelvemonth. Our outlook is that the topic will larn the most often spoken words, of which there are around 2,000, after one academic twelvemonth of submergence in English, as all of the words of a linguistic communication are non every bit used in the natural environment.

There are several other ways of make up one’s minding which words will be counted ; ‘token ‘ which means the figure of words in a text, ‘type ‘ which means the figure of different words in a text, and ‘ lemmas ‘ which consists of a caput or base word and some of its inflexions and decreased signifiers in the same portion of address ( the affixes which are added merely change the words grammatically ) like, walk, walked, walking and walks. “ However, if the affixes change the word category of a root, the consequence is derivative ” ( Schmitt, 2000: 2 ) and these words are called ‘word households ‘ . These consist of the head word and its inflected signifiers which can alter the portion of address, such as simulative, stimulation and stimulate which have different orthographic, written, forms but are near in their significance. It may be said that it is better to number L2 in Lemmas as most of the times ; the plural of a word or past portion of a verb may come with cognizing the word and is portion of the cognition of that word, while it is more efficaciously to number L1 in word households. Milton ( 2009: 12 ) indicated that ; “ Native talkers can moderately be expected to be familiar with about all the ways of derivation and inflecting words. ”

There are two sorts of vocabulary cognition which are listed ; the scholar ‘s inactive or receptive cognition and the scholar ‘s active or productive cognition ( Milton, 2009: 117 ) . Knowing pupils ‘ receptive vocabulary size is really important in some cases such as comprehension of a text or in listening undertakings. On the other manus, productive vocabulary size, which is employed for speech production and authorship, is of import excessively. Most of the clip, the inactive cognition of the scholar is greater than his or her active cognition since in some instances, such as force per unit area or embarrassment, retrieving the cues of the words is hard and the scholar misses the words. Therefore, the Vocabulary Size Trials are normally developed to supply a dependable, precise and comprehensive step of a scholar ‘s receptive vocabulary size ( Schmitt, 2010: 293 ) . The consequence of Webb ‘s surveies confirms and studies “ receptive tonss were higher than productive tonss utilizing both the sensitive and rigorous marking methods ” ( 2008: 85 ) . Although it may be acceptable that the relationship between receptive and productive vocabulary size is likely to be different from group to group as ( Laufer and Paribakht 1998 cited, Webb, 2008 ) argues that the spread between receptive and productive cognition is smaller in EFL pupils than ESL pupils.

2.3. Which vocabularies are acquired more easy or with more trouble?

There are different factors which affect larning vocabularies. Research shows that portion of address is one of the factors which has an influence on the word acquisition procedure. Horst and Meara ( 1999 ) suggested that nouns seem to be the easiest portion of the linguistic communication to retain while adverbs might be the most hard portion to retain. Verbs after nouns might be learnt easier than adjectives. In add-on, the manner in which the words are taught has a important consequence on retrieving words. For case, new words from vocals are learnt more easy as the volume of repeat in vocals makes most people happy, yet this type of repeat is impossible in category and is tiring for the scholars ( Milton, 2008 ) . The vocabulary which is taught through movies, DVDs or amusing books is learnt more efficaciously as the scholars link the linguistic communication used for those words with the images provided and this is advantageous in deriving vocabulary with easiness.

The words from linguistic communications which are historically derived from the same beginning are more easy acquired in comparing with other linguistic communications. For case Spanish, Italian, Gallic, and Portuguese are connate linguistic communications and there are a immense figure of words which are connate words and are similar in them. Whenever mark linguistic communications are similar to the female parent linguistic communication, larning vocabularies are easier. The words like, constabulary, park, computing machine, cyberspace, telecasting are common even in linguistic communications which are historically and typologically different from English such as Persian.

Some nouns like aeroplanes, bathroom, and library have physical properties and can be seen and touched or can be presented and practiced utilizing brassy cards and activity sheets. These words are concrete words and are easier to retrieve and learn than abstract words like appropriate, enigma or rule which rely on intangible elements. Their significances may non be really clear in scholars ‘ heads, therefore they are non easy to retrieve.

The other facets which have negative effects on the larning load of the words are uneven visual aspect and non-English sound combination such as put-down, juicy or snivel. This makes them more hard to learn ( Rodgers, 1969 ) . Another facet which makes larning vocabulary more confusing is when there are words with similar signifier and pronunciation. Wordss like conditions, wether, whether or mention, sight, site are more hard to retrieve as their pronunciation is confounding. In add-on to the above, longer words with 3 or 4 course of studies such as extemporisation, discountenance, counter might be more hard to retrieve than short words.

2.4. Which beginnings does a scholar usage to larn another linguistic communication?

Another portion of this survey is to detect the beginnings which vocabulary acquisition comes from. In order to happen out about the ways in which a immature scholar can obtain the linguistic communication, as this instance survey is of an 8-year old male child, we must pay close attending to the literature reappraisal of theories of immature linguistic communication scholars of this age. Harmonizing to Piaget ‘s phases of development theory, kids construct cognition for themselves and actively take part in the acquisition procedure ( Hohmann & A ; Weikart, 1995 ) . Harmonizing to Pinter ( 2006: 14 ) kids have common features with their equals at similar ages. Piaget indicates those kids between the ages 7 and 11 have the ability to believe logically in different countries of cognition such as Math, Science or map reading but they can non generalise their understanding yet. Furthermore, Vygotsky emphasizes the effects of the societal environment and other people on the universe of the kid ( Pinter, 2006:10 ) . He investigated the function of civilization and the societal context in which the kids grow up. “ He believed that kids learn within communities instead than purely as persons ( Saville, 2006:112 ) . ” Another theory was mentioned by Bruner in 1976 which is about a particular type of aid and support needed by kids which is provided in a systematic mode called ‘Scaffolding ‘ . He explored the ways that grownups use linguistic communication to depict the universe for kids and assist them through an effectual interaction. Therefore, in this instance the natural environment can scaffold the topic into larning the new vocabularies and supply a existent context for the words. Therefore, harmonizing to Piaget, this topic can believe logically about the input received from the environment and can utilize it for his communicating demands. His interaction with other people in the natural acquisition context can assist him to obtain more words than larning in the schoolroom. The capable improves most of his vocabulary cognition in English on the resort area with his friends and during the school clip hours from instructors and by manner of interaction with other pupils or through other beginnings like the physician ‘s office or vocabulary consumption from sketchs on Television channels.

2.5. Which strategies does a scholar usage to larn the vocabularies of a 2nd linguistic communication?

Due to the fact that the vocabulary of any linguistic communication includes a broad scope of lexical signifiers, at first the scholar likely supposes that the system of the 2nd linguistic communication is about similar to his first linguistic communication, until he discovers that it is non ( Ringbom, 1987: 135 ) . Sometimes scholars try to happen equalities in L2, but they may non be successful all the clip as some lexical units in L2 are non the accurate equivalents in L1. In some instances they can non happen any equivalents at all ( Swan, 1997 ) . The scholar tries to happen some schemes to use in order to larn the 2nd linguistic communication. Different scholars use assorted schemes such as meta cognitive scheme, where the scholar is responsible for the construction of their ain acquisition, cognitive scheme by utilizing mnemotechnic scheme that helps them to retrieve a word, public presentation scheme which means practising something for a public public presentation or affectional scheme by bettering assurance in different linguistic communication undertakings through self-talk ( Cohen, 1998 ) . It seems that effectual scholars use a broad assortment of schemes than less effectual scholars ( Naiman et al. , 1978 ) . Cohen ( 1998 ) questioned whether all of these schemes were helpful for all linguistic communication scholars or whether less effectual linguistic communication scholars would non profit from being taught the schemes. Do bad schemes have a negative impact on acquisition or public presentation?

Analyzing the schemes used by the scholars is functional for linguistic communication teaching method as it can explicate single differences in 2nd linguistic communication acquisition ( Ellis, 1994:558 ) .

Pavicic ( 2008: 157 ) in Appendix B, used a vocabulary acquisition scheme questionnaire for simple schools. He believed that kids could larn a foreign linguistic communication in different ways. This questionnaire is designed to happen out how the scholars learn other linguistic communication vocabularies. Different schemes are mentioned in this questionnaire such as ; composing down the words, reiterating them aloud or mentally, picking up words from movies and Television programmes, doing a mental image of a word ‘s written signifier to retrieve, imaging the context in which a word could be used in order to retrieve it, listening to vocals to understand the words or picking up words from the cyberspace or magazines in the foreign linguistic communication.

2.6. Vocabulary addition from formal categories VS. a natural acquisition context

The relationship between the sum of taught and the sum of erudite vocabulary is debatable. It seems that the outlook of the scholar with respect to vocabulary consumption in categories is wholly different to what happens in world. Teachers introduce, explain and pattern words during 100s hours of tuition category to derive eloquence in the foreign linguistic communication. The decision is dissatisfactory, as the scholars who manage to obtain the bulk of vocabulary taught in the category, really achieve small through linguistic communication categories. Milton & A ; Meara suggest “ The vocabulary consumption from normal schoolroom contact can be measured at approximately three or four lexical points per schoolroom hr ” ( 1998: 74 ) . Milton and Vassiliu ( 2000 ) argue that there is considerable single fluctuation ; hence good scholars may larn more vocabulary in categories.

One type of attack that has been used to look into lexical larning accomplishments in kids is the realistic survey. “ The benefit of utilizing a realistic attack is that research workers are able to look into acquisition over clip, miming the natural acquisition state of affairs faced by kids ” ( Windfuhr et al.2002: 416 ) . Lightbown and Spada ( 1993:69 ) argued that those who are exposed to the linguistic communication in a natural environment and larn the linguistic communication in this context efficaciously are more successful than other scholars who learn the linguistic communication in the schoolroom.

2.7. Who is better at linguistic communication acquisition ; younger or older?

Surveies that have evaluated natural linguistic communication acquisition have frequently compared younger and older kids ‘s public presentation straight. In grownups, the rate of acquisition is affected by similarities between the first and 2nd linguistic communications ( Slavoff & A ; Johnson, 1995: 3 ) . Another survey shows that grownups and older kids are ab initio fast at geting the grammar of a linguistic communication but are eventually surpassed by younger scholars ( Long, 1990 ) .

Learners get a 2nd linguistic communication through a similar path but at a different rate. Ellis ( 1994 ) indicates that modus operandis of acquisition like form development, fixed sequence of syntactic construction and morphological signifiers is similar in grownups and kids, but the velocity is different. Harmonizing to some surveies of 2nd linguistic communication acquisition ( Johnson & A ; Newport: 1998:5 ) , grownups seem to get down traveling toward 2nd linguistic communication proficiency more rapidly in phonemics and sentence structure ; nevertheless this advantage appears to be ephemeral ( Johnson & A ; Newport, 1989:5 ) . “ When continuance and sum of exposure are kept changeless, in the early phases of syntactic and morphological development older kids are faster than younger kids, but there are no advantages for unwritten eloquence “ ( Munoz, 2006 ) .

Childs have advantages when geting phonemics and are first-class in pronunciation in first and 2nd linguistic communication acquisition ( Johnson & A ; Newport, 1989 ) . This might be used to back up the being of a sensitive period for geting linguistic communication ( Slavoff & A ; Johnson, 1995: 3 ) . In realistic environments ; early scholars are likely to accomplish higher L2 proficiency than grownup scholars ( Munoz, 2006 ) . In fact, the advantages of linguistic communication acquisition in grownups remain merely for an initial period of clip, and after less than 12 months younger scholars surpass grownups ( Snow & A ; Hoefnagel-Hohlen, 1978 ) . Harmonizing to Krashen, ( Krashen et al. , 1979 ) scholars who start late, seem to hold a short-run advantage over early scholars with respect to rate of acquisition which is faster in late starting motors. However, early scholars have a long-run advantage in realistic scenes. Surveies such as Johnson & A ; Newport ( 1989:36 ) indicate that during childhood, foremost or 2nd linguistic communication scholars have a alone capacity for linguistic communication acquisition. Therefore, if scholars want to larn any linguistic communication to the full, whether first or 2nd linguistic communication, it might be more effectual to get it during child- goon. The undeniable fact is that immature scholars are superior in geting phonemics and better at imitation. This can be seen in kids from immigrant households who can talk the linguistic communication of their new community with native -like eloquence ( Lightbown & A ; Spada, 1993:43 ) . Corporate plants about linguistic communication scholars in older scholars and younger scholars indicate that it might be acceptable that immature kids could be better 2nd linguistic communication scholars than grownups and make higher degrees of concluding proficiency in a 2nd linguistic communication.

2.8. Explicit or Implicit acquisition

The difference between explicit and inexplicit acquisition can be demonstrated by the undermentioned illustration. When kids start geting their first linguistic communication, they automatically get the construction of their first linguistic communication through the natural, meaningful communicating which happens around them. If they are asked to explicate their cognition of the linguistic communication, they can non. For case, if you ask a kid about the construction and the signifier of a plural in their linguistic communication, they likely do non cognize. However, if you ask them: “ If you have one plaything and your friend gives you another plaything, how many playthings have you got? ” they should be able to answer, “ Two playthings ” , since they hear and use it during their mundane usage of their linguistic communication. This is the significance of inexplicit acquisition. L1 grammar is acquired from use and exposure, with sufficient input instead than explicit regulations. Despite this acquisition, 2nd linguistic communication in grownups is expressed as they require extra resources of expressed acquisition ( Ellis, 2006 ) . The differentiation between inexplicit acquisition and explicit acquisition was defined by Krashen ( 1982 ) . He indicated that big 2nd linguistic communication scholars who are larning linguistic communication through methods like the Grammar Translation Method, can explicate and cognize the construction of the linguistic communication more efficaciously than native talkers, as they are larning the linguistic communication explicitly. “ Explicit acquisition is input treating with the witting purpose to happen out whether the input information contains regularities and, if so, to work out the constructs and regulations with which these regularities can be captured. Implicit acquisition is input treating without such an purpose, taking topographic point unconsciously ” ( Hulstijn, 2005: 131 ) .

Research workers have been interested in the function of expressed information in SLA for the last 30 old ages, and they claim that the public presentation of the scholars who received expressed information is better because “ it promotes detecting of signifiers in the input, and scholars are therefore better able to treat these signifiers than if they are left to their ain devices ” ( Fernandez, 2008: 278 ) . There are rational grounds to pay attending to explicit and implicit acquisition in 2nd linguistic communication acquisition research, since expressed cognition does non go inexplicit cognition ( Paradis, 1994 ) . In all the surveies about explicit and inexplicit cognition “ expressed cognition was operationalized as the scholar ‘s account of specific lingual characteristic, whereas implicit cognition was determined by analyzing the scholar ‘s usage of these characteristics in unwritten or written linguistic communication ” ( Ellis, 2005:145 ) .

Equally long as linguists concentrate on cosmopolitan success in first linguistic communication acquisition and troubles and differential success in the instance of the 2nd linguistic communication, which is more of a witting operation, it is logical to put affairs of implicit and expressed acquisition in 2nd linguistic communication acquisition research. Not merely are linguists interested in this issue, but besides curriculum contrivers, stuff interior decorators, instructors, and scholars, all of whom would profit from cognizing more about the advantages and disadvantages of implicit or expressed acquisition. It is admirable for instructors to detect the single differences in implicit and explicit larning harmonizing to their pupils ‘ aptitude, intelligence and working memory. Both of these factors have a batch of influence on implicit acquisition which is based on incidental acquisition ( Hulstijn, 2005 ) . Fluency is another trait which must be developed independently. In fact, exposures to the L2 and cognitive factors have an consequence on eloquence development ( Derwing et al. , 2009 ) .

To sum up, it seems that planned incidental acquisition is more effectual than larning without any consciousness. Nagy, Herman & A ; Anderson ( 1985 ) believe at least 2,250 new words are learnt from contexts in planned incidental acquisition each twelvemonth. Their survey is about linguistic communication acquisition without purpose and consciousness of what has been learned in a natural environment, and aims to look into how successful the scholar will be in geting the linguistic communication implicitly. It is really important to happen the relationship between implicit acquisition and other cognitive factors which a immature scholar employs to pass on successfully in an environment. Harmonizing to Krashen ( 1985 ) acquisition and acquisition are different. When a immature linguistic communication scholar acquires linguistic communication in a natural environment ; it is assumed that the scholar learns the linguistic communication while prosecuting in communicating.

The assessor has to clear up whether the vocabulary consumption in the participant is inexplicit or expressed. It is assumed that larning the first linguistic communication is entirely inexplicit ; nevertheless it seems the participant in this survey is larning new vocabulary explicitly as he can retrieve the beginnings and the topographic points where he has heard them foremost. It shows that vocabulary consumption can be explicit, although kids learn grammar implicitly in the environment. Some surveies such as Williams ( 2005 ) indicate that the true significance of a word could be achieved implicitly or explicitly. Williams argues that when the scholar encounters a new word for the first clip, he may think the significance or put a unsmooth significance with the aid of a instructor or lexicon. However, when he encounters the word for the 2nd clip he might explicitly remember his predating hypothesis significance.

2.9. Bilingual users of English

There are tonss of kids who get their parents ‘ native linguistic communication and who subsequently learn another linguistic communication. Numerous kids get more than one linguistic communication at the same clip during their childhood because they grow up in households who are bilingual, or they grow up in a bilingual society.

Different surveies give different definitions for English bilingual kids. McKay indicates that bilingual users are the persons who use English as a 2nd linguistic communication ( 2002 ) . Jenkins argues that bilingual users of English are the individuals who use English for more limited and formal intents. She indicates that native talkers of English who can talk other linguistic communications are non included in this group as they use English for all of their demands ( 2000 ) . The kids who learn two linguistic communications before the age of three in a natural environment get two linguistic communication systems as a individual system and so divide them ( Volterra & A ; Taeschner, 1978 ) . Therefore, people who use one linguistic communication for stating narratives or for their personal demands and utilize another linguistic communication for their communicating demands are called bilingual. In add-on, those who use one linguistic communication at place and one linguistic communication at school or on the street, or those who speak one linguistic communication to their female parent and another one to their male parent are called bilingual ( Cohen, 1999: 157 ) . For case, a miss who has an English female parent who speaks English to her all the clip and a Gallic male parent who uses Gallic about all of the clip with her is decidedly bilingual. Some bilingual people are inactive bilingual, as after they start traveling to school and happen friends, they use one of the linguistic communications more. Therefore, they have the ability to understand another linguistic communication but they are non able to talk or utilize that linguistic communication freely or easy.

Many households prefer to hold bilingual kids as they believe “ bilingualism brings about the advantages to kids that have an consequence on their hereafter development ” ( Allman, 2005:58 ) .

In this research, I have endeavoured to make more research about immature, bilingual linguistic communication scholars. I have tested two bilingual kids whose native linguistic communications are Persian and Gallic and I will compare their vocabulary size with a monolingual kid. I have studied the vocabulary size of a 7-year old male child whose parents are from Iran. However, he has been brought up in the UK and goes to a British school. I have besides investigated the vocabulary size of an 8-year old male child whose parents are Gallic but who has been traveling to British school for 2 old ages and has had ample chance to interact with a broad group of English talkers at school and in the resort area as there are no other Gallic people in his abode.

Different surveies show that the vocabulary size of bilinguals is lower than monolinguals and that they perform at lower degrees ( Ben Zeev, 1977b ; Doyle, Champagne, & A ; Segalowitz, 1978 cited in Allman, 2005:58 ) . In add-on, different grammar undertakings matched by the bilinguals took longer than the public presentation of monolingual kids ( Gathercole,2002b ) . Harmonizing to ( Allman, 2005:67 ) , the ground for low presentation of bilingual talkers in comparing with monolingual talkers in English is non obvious. However, Ben Zeev ( 1997b ) argues that it is related to the frequence of the words which bilingual talkers are exposed to in each of the linguistic communications.

2.10. Review of the related surveies

Language can be used for vocabulary consumption. Different surveies show assorted appraisals of words obtained per twenty-four hours by scholars. Some of them are over estimated such as Diller ( 1978 ) who claims that secondary school kids can larn 20,000 words a twelvemonth ( around 60 words a twenty-four hours ) and others are under estimated, such as Diack ( 1975 ) who changed these figures to three to five words per twenty-four hours. There is a immense difference between vocabulary consumption in a category and vocabulary consumption in realistic environment. Milton & A ; Meara ( 1995:31 ) claims, “ topics learned English as a foreign linguistic communication five times faster than categories at place, around 2500 words per twelvemonth ” . As Cameron ( 2001: 75 ) indicates, ‘ A realistic mark for kids larning a foreign linguistic communication might be around 500 words a twelvemonth. ‘ This figure is wholly under estimated in comparing with vocabulary consumption which is asserted by other surveies. Milton and Meara ( 1998:74 ) assert that vocabulary consumption from normal category contact can be calculated at around three of four words per schoolroom hr. This seems like an underestimate as Vassiliu ( 2001 ) shows that a good scholar can larn up to 1000 words per twelvemonth.

In India and Indonesia, after 5 old ages of regular lesson, kids reach 1000 or 2000 words in English ( Nation, 1990 ) . Another survey done by Staehr ( 2008: 150 ) argues that in malice of a lower limit of 570 hours of direction in linguistic communication categories during seven old ages, the bulk of the scholars in these categories had non acquired the most frequent 2000 word households in English. This survey shows that the sum of vocabulary gained through linguistic communication acquisition categories during 7 old ages is much less than stated in Nagy and Anderson ( 1984 ) who suggest 3000 new words are learnt by kids each twelvemonth.

Corporate plants elaborate on immature linguistic communication scholars who arrive at school cognizing about no English word at all. A survey by Cummins ( 1981 cited Golden et. 1990: 1 ) analysed “ the consequence of vocabulary trials of 1210 nonnative English Second Language pupils in the Toronto school system in relation to their age on reaching and length of abode in Canada ” . The consequence of this survey showed that the kid who had immigrated at the age of six or subsequently took five to seven old ages to accomplish estimated tonss which were the same as those of native-born pupils at their grade degree.

There are few, if any, empirical surveies to day of the month to demo the vocabulary size of a immature linguistic communication scholar during one twelvemonth in a natural environment. Therefore, the present survey is an effort to look into the function of the natural environment in larning a 2nd linguistic communication.

Chapter 3

Purposes

3.1. Main Research Questions

The current survey was guided by three chief research inquiries and this chapter is traveling to cover with the purposes and outlooks of this research. The research inquiries of this survey are:

1: How much vocabulary has a immature scholar learned by the terminal of an academic twelvemonth?

The assessor would wish to cognize how many words can be learned by a scholar during an academic twelvemonth exactly. She will take different trials monthly to accomplish her mark.

2: Which beginnings do these words come from? Are all the words learned during school hours or can the scholar acquire his vocabulary from other beginnings excessively?

The assessor is looking for different beginnings which the participant uses to larn new words. She believes the participant receives most of his English exposure through submergence in school categories, on the resort area with his friends and during school clip hours from the instructors and interaction with other pupils. She believes that he improves his vocabulary cognition though other beginnings excessively, like the physician ‘s office, Television programmes or sketchs and the amusing books that the assessor reads for him at dark.

3: Which strategies does the scholar usage to larn and retrieve new vocabulary and sentences faster?

As a immature scholar, the assessor finds that the participant comes up with linguistic communication rapidly and without many of the jobs which adults brush. Therefore, the assessor is looking for the schemes which the participant uses and compares them with old research suggestions.

3.2. Secondary Research Questions

In drumhead, the current survey is an probe of vocabulary addition through a realistic environment and the factors which help a immature linguistic communication scholar to go a successful bilingual talker with a native-like speech pattern during a short period of clip ( an academic twelvemonth ) . Additionally, the assessor will analyse the different factors which contribute to vocabulary acquisition, in other words the assessor will try to happen out:

How of import is the frequence and repeat of a word in larning that word?

Harmonizing to the participants ‘ statement, it seems that the words which are repeated most in the schoolroom and in the resort area are really likely to be learned.

What is the consequence of word trouble factors such as portion of address, length and cognateness in larning a word?

The assessor presumes that some sorts of words, which are included in the X-Lex Test, will ne’er be learnt by the participant as some of them are really unusual or they are non frequent.

What is the relationship between the first and 2nd linguistic communication in larning a word?

As Persian, which is the first linguistic communication of the scholar, is historically and typologically different from English, the assessor believes that it is likely to hold an consequence on larning English as a 2nd linguistic communication in comparing with the other Romance linguistic communications like: Spanish, Gallic, Italian or Rumanian, which are really near to English.

How many words does an Persian immature scholar who was born and grows up in the UK cognize?

The assessor decides to take trials from a friends ‘ boy who is 8 old ages old and whose parents are originally from Iran. His male parent and his female parent are Persian and grew up in Iran but they migrated to the UK 10 old ages ago and this male child, who is called Parsa, was born in the UK and has been in the school in the UK for five old ages and is in twelvemonth three now. He started school in the Nursery twelvemonth which is followed by response twelvemonth and twelvemonth one and two in the UK instruction system. While his parents talk Persian at place, he has been immersed in a natural English environment for five old ages at school. Therefore, he has grown up in an English-speaking environment and English is spoken by him most of the clip, while his parents try to talk Iranian to him. It has been recommended that they speak Iranian to him as they do non desire him to bury his native linguistic communication.

3.3. Expectations

It is predicted that the topic should larn around 1000 word households in the academic twelvemonth. Possibly the assessors ‘ outlooks are set excessively high? However they are based on related surveies such as Golden, Nation and Read ( 1990 ) , which believe that native talkers will add approximately 1000 word households a twelvemonth to their vocabulary size. Our outlook from this research is that after one academic twelvemonth a scholar can larn around the first two 1000s most frequent word in a natural environment where he is immersed in English.

The assessor believes that as the participant spends most of his clip at school or on the resort area, the greatest beginning for betterment of his 2nd linguistic communication will be the resort area with his friends, during school clip hours from his instructors, and interaction with other pupils as the participant continues to talk Persian, his native linguistic communication, at place.

In some instances, it has been seen that the participant improves his vocabulary cognition though other beginnings excessively, like the physician ‘s office, Television programmes or sketchs. The participant asks the significance of some words while watching sketchs or movies and the assessor finds that he uses them at another clip but in the same state of affairs and in the right topographic point.

One of the most of import inquiries in this research is which strategies scholars use to understand the unknown words they encounter while reading. Harmonizing to Pavicic ( 2008: 76 ) , ” there is a turning involvement in research on vocabulary acquisition schemes. ” Ellis ( 1995 ) believes that vocabulary strategic direction for scholars in vocabulary acquisition is likely to be good, while Graves suggests that, because pupils really do most of their acquisition of new words independently, it makes sense to promote them “ to follow personal programs to spread out their vocabularies over clip ” ( 1987: 177 ) .

The participant is excessively immature to utilize the mnemonic techniques which high-school pupils use to get a foreign linguistic communication. Levin et Al. ( 1979: 587 ) reported that about half of the high-school Spanish pupils in their control group used “ schemes affecting blood relations, phoneme correspondences, and some other mnemotechnic fast ones ” .

The assessor asks the participant about the schemes which he uses to larn new vocabulary. The participant answers that he tries to retrieve the same state of affairs in one conversation and utilize it in another state of affairs. In fact, the assessor finds that he copies a group of words in a state of affairs and uses them in another 1. This suggests that he can utilize more frequent lexical points which are more utile and easier to retrieve when the chance arises throughout his communications.

The participant says that whenever he asks about the significance of a word and his instructor gives him the equivalent word or definition of that word, if it is easier, he will seek to retrieve that word and utilize it in the same state of affairs. He pays small attending to the physical or grammatical characteristics of words and merely wages attending to happening a nexus between new words and the words which he already knows and to seting them in order to do a new sentence.

The assessor finds out that the schemes used by scholars to larn some words are later reported with an accent on illation excessively, as the participant sometimes finds out the significance of some words indirectly from what he already knows as the blood relation words. Some of the words such as system, park, anteroom, imperativeness, normal, manner, chart, pump, hazard, flat, concluding, sauce, have the same significance in his native linguistic communication excessively. To sum up, it could besides be noted that the participant frequently uses multiple beginnings and schemes while larning a word.

Chapter 4

Methodology

4.1. Education and the age at which immature scholars start school in Iran

Iran is located in the Middle East and has population of around 70,000,000. It is 1,648,000 sq. kilometer in size and Persian is the most widely spoken linguistic communication in this state. Children start traveling to primary school, which is called Dabestan, at the age of 6 for a period of 6 old ages. Harmonizing to the jurisprudence, attending at primary school is mandatory for all kids. Childs are normally in categories with one instructor who is responsible for all of the class work. Education is free of charge but there are private schools which are allowed to bear down fees for tuition. English as a foreign linguistic communication is taught from the age of 12, and the pupils start Arabic at the same clip. They try to larn Arabic as it is the linguistic communication in which their sanctum book, the Quran, is written and they pray in Arabic every bit good. The English books which are designed for the kids in Iran are non interesting at all and the instructors in different schools use assorted attacks to learn English to the pupils. They frequently have to utilize excess English books which are more suited and which provide the pupils with more meaningful undertakings in existent communicative conditions. Teachers know that if they want to accomplish the aims of the lesson so the undertakings in the class books should be suiting to the pupils single demands and involvements. However, the English books are non of good quality and the pupils argue that they can larn English on the cyberspace or by watching movies more efficaciously than through their school books. Since the kids learn English passively through other beginnings in Iran, it could be said that there are non plenty installations to larn linguistic communication at that place.

4.2. Summary of the experiment

The topic is tested utilizing two types of trials. There are no pre-tests. Trials are given to the participant to mensurate his vocabulary size growing during an academic twelvemonth. He will be given monthly trials on the words he knows, holding been immersed in the natural environment for that month. The purpose of this survey is to roll up information to measure his vocabulary addition from month to month. He will be given the same trials each month to gauge the comprehensiveness of his vocabulary. The consequences of the trials aim to mensurate his advancement in vocabulary consumption after one academic twelvemonth in the natural environment. During these trials, his assessor asks him where and when he has heard a peculiar word and asks him to give an illustration in a sentence. In order to add more qualitative information analysis, the assessor records all of the information in a notebook for future usage.

4.3. The participant

The participant is an 8-year old male child from Iran and his name is Amir. His first linguistic communication is Persian, which is historically and typologically different from English. The topic had non been immersed in English before geting in the UK at all. The topic arrived in the UK at the terminal of September 2011 and began submergence into English in October of the same twelvemonth. When he entered school, he did non hold any involvement in larning English in general. At the clip of his entryway to school, he had merely spent a really short clip larning English at place with his female parent and in some categories in English institutes. However, at the start clip of this survey, had no cognition of English other than a twosome of basic salutation words. Since no pre-test was given to him, his vocabulary cognition before get downing the experiment is non obvious and it is unknown how much vocabulary was obtained through old English categories which he attended in Iran. However, it is really likely that, as he ne’er used English during the old ages he lived in Iran, the vocabulary he had been taught has been forgotten.

The trials are given monthly, nevertheless the clip of the trials are chosen by the participant. In fact when the assessor asked him, “ would you wish to take a trial today or non? “ , if he was non ready, the assessor took the trial in better conditions. The assessor believes that the consequences of the trials are undependable unless the participant is ready and that if the participant is non motivated it may be hard to get accurate consequences.

4.4. Materials

There are different sorts of Vocabulary Size Trials which are designed for different ages. The participant ‘s vocabulary size in English was evaluated utilizing two sorts of trials. The trials which were used for this immature linguistic communication scholar were: foremost ; three English versions of trials by Meara and Milton ( 2003 ) ( see Appendixs 1,2,3: 62-64 ) . The Meara and Milton trial is a Vocabulary Breadth Test and is called the X-Lex Vocabulary Test. Three separate versions of the trial were used in order to estimate whether the trials were consistent or non. These trials included 100 existent English words, plus 20 words which were invented but which looked like existent words. The first 20 random words, which were placed in the first column, were related to the 1,000 most frequently-used words in English. The 2nd column included words from the 2nd 1000 most frequently-used words, and the other three columns contained selected words from the 3rd, 4th and 5th thousand most frequently-used words in English. The participant was awarded 50 points for each existent word which was answered right. However the participant lost 250 points for each tick for an invented word in the last column. This negative mark was chosen for each incorrect reply in order to set the mark and prevent replies which were given by opportunity and could hold caused overestimate of the mark for the participant.

As the participant in this trial is a immature linguistic communication scholar who has non yet mastered reading, the assessor read the words in each column and asked him to state whether he knew the words and, if so, to give a equivalent word of that word in Persian. The day of the month of each trial was noted on the paper. Professor James Milton ( Swansea University ) advised the assessor to ignore the words in the last column and non to inquire the participant these words. Therefore, the assessor adds up the figure of right replies from100 words and so multiplies the right reply by 50 to gauge the vocabulary size of the participant.

Second ; as our instance survey is 8 old ages old and started larning English 5 months ago, holding completed 2 trials the assessor found that some of the words presented in columns 4 or 5 of the English X-Lex trial were truly hard for the participant. As a consequence, the assessor planned to plan another trial for a immature linguistic communication scholar. Professor James Milton introduced package called MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories, where in English Lexical Norms ; the word frequence plan was presented ( Dale & A ; Fenson, 1996 ) . In Lexical development Norms for English, there is the possibility to expose all words alphabetically, in word groups, or harmonizing to their frequence. If the user selects order by frequence, so he can choose a month by which to set up the trial.

Harmonizing to the tabular array of proportion of kids reported understanding or bring forthing words, the assessor designed another Vocabulary Size Test called the Lex 2005 Database. The words in this trial are selected harmonizing to comprehension per centums in M16. Additionally, it is divided into 5 columns, with different per centums from 5-20 % to 80-90 % ( see Appendix 4: 65 ) . The words are chosen from assorted word groups such as animate beings, nutrient and drink, toys, organic structure parts and apparels. The words in this trial are separated into 20 words per. column, with 100 words in entire.

4.5. Procedure

The topic was tested between February and July. He was tested monthly at place by his assessor, who is his female parent, and the same trials were given to the participant on each juncture. First, the assessor reads each word and asks the topic to give the significance of that word. As the topic is a immature linguistic communication scholar, the assessor accepts the proviso of equivalent word for these words and if the participant gives the significance of related words within the word household, the assessor counts them as a right reply. For case, for the word of inform, the participant gives the significance of the information or when faced with beginning, the participant gives the significance of original.

During the trial, the assessor asks about the beginning from which the words have been learned. In the first trials, the participant did non give his assessor any thought about his acquisition beginnings and merely gave the significances of some words. Sometimes when he feels that he has heard the word someplace, he asks the assessor to give an illustration of a sentence in which the word is used. After hearing the illustration he can give the significance of the words easy. On juncture he insists on his assessor giving him the significance of some words that he does non cognize. However the assessor does non desire to state him and sometimes has to state him that she does non cognize the words herself. The participant was told that the figure of right replies is non of import and it is merely research to mensurate the exact and right replies. However, as a immature kid, he looks at the figure of right replies as a game and he feels disquieted when he sees that the assessor does non click a word. The figure of right replies is calculated after the participant has finished each trial and is recorded on the trial with the day of the month.

After three months, in May, the assessor found that the topic started to convey the vocabulary into productive usage. When she reads each word and asks the participant to give her the significance of it, the participant uses the word in a sentence. The sentences are wholly right in sentence structure and semantics. It shows that the participant knows the significance of the words in longer constructions or as formulaic looks ( Wray, 2000 ) .

The participant listens to each word and is allowed as much clip as necessary to give the significance or equivalent word of the word. To avoid exhaustion, or whenever the assessor feels that the participant is tired or distracted, she offers the participant the chance to take as many interruptions as he wishes.

4.6. Control participants

To command the relationship between the first and 2nd linguistic communications in larning vocabulary, one indigen and two bilingual male childs are evaluated on the same versions of X-Lex trials. One of them is Parsa, who is an 8-year old male child at the clip of proving. He was born in the UK to Persian parents and has been in British school for 5 old ages. The consequences of his trial are shown in Table 2. He was selected as the control participant as his native linguistic communication is Iranian.

The other control participant is a male child from Canada whose first linguistic communication is Gallic. His name is Thersandre and he is an 8-year old male child and is in the same category in school as the participant. He arrived in the UK last twelvemonth and began submergence into English one twelvemonth before the participant. As he speaks Gallic at place, he receives most of his English exposure through submergence during school hours and on the resort area, in the same conditions as the participant. He was chosen for this trial as his native linguistic communication is Gallic which is a Romance linguistic communication and similar to English, and the survey offers a position into the relationship between the first and 2nd linguistic communications when larning a word.

The other male child is Morgan, who is 9 old ages old and is a native English male child. He is in twelvemonth 4 at school and is one twelvemonth older than the participant. He goes to Welsh school, nevertheless his chief linguistic communication is English and he speaks English at place. Harmonizing to Golden, Nation and Read ( 1990: 341 ) “ the 2nd linguistic communication scholars did non bridge the spread between their vocabulary size and that of the native talkers that existed when they entered the school system ” . This is the principle behind taking him as a control participant ; to happen out about the size and nature of the spread between a native and a 2nd linguistic communication scholar. In add-on to Golden, Nation and Read ( 1990 ) , Cenoz and Genesee indicated that “ bilinguals, in and outside the school, are normally evaluated against monolingual competency in their non-native linguistic communications ” ( 1998:18 ) . Therefore the assessor believes that it can be interesting to hold a British pupil, who is of a similar age, taking the same trials and seeing how much vocabulary he already has.

Chapter 5

Consequences

In this chapter, every attempt has been made to analysis the informations achieved from the two trials which have been carried out by the assessor.

5.1. Basic analysis of X-Lex trials

The basic consequences of this survey are reported in Table 1 below. The tabular array shows the figure of words that the participant knows multiplied by a mark of 50 which is awarded for each existent word. These are the words from three versions of X-Lex trials whose significance is known by the participant. The consequences of the X-Lex trials after 6 months show that the trial consequences are really consistent. They show that around 500 lemmatised words per. month are learnt by the scholar. The tabular array shows that Amir has no trouble in geting the first 2000 most frequently-used words during an academic twelvemonth. He is able to get them every bit long as he is immersed in English in a natural environment.

Table 1. Number of Amir ‘s right responses at three versions of X-Lex trial during 6 months

X-Lex

February

March

April

May

June

July

Version 1

950

1400

1900

2300

2500

2550

Version 2

850

1400

1600

2200

2450

2450

Version 3

900

1350

1600

2000

2150

2250

Mean

900

1383

1700

2166

2366

2416

Chart 1: the chart below gives the information about the average Numberss of known words during one academic twelvemonth.

Chart 2: the chart below gives the information about the consequences of known words during one academic twelvemonth in different versions of X-Lex trials

To sum up, harmonizing to the above charts, the participant acquires around 500 lemmatised words each month. The tendency is tremendously fast at foremost, as at the terminal of the survey in May he has got 2000 words which are really near to the native talkers at the same age. The tendency tails off in June and July and is close 2500. The chart illustrates by the terminal of the academic twelvemonth of 8 and 9 months, the participant about knows half of the words in the trial which are 5000. He knows most of the most frequency words and this is adequate to be really fluid in day-to-day address.

5.1.1. Basic analysis of Parsa, Morgan and Thersandre ‘s consequences

The figure of words which Parsa knows in the three versions of X-Lex trials is represented in Table 2 and is really consistent and really near to Morgan, who is a native talker. The figure of words which Parsa knows shows that the length of stay in a natural environment has an