ABSTRACT

While there is ample evidence that study abroad (SA) enhances oral fluency in a foreign language, the effects of different types of learning context on other aspects of oral skills, such as vocabulary use, have not received much attention in academic research and are less clear. The present study tries to fill this void by investigating lexical development in oral production by advanced learners of English experiencing two different contexts of acquisition: formal instruction (FI) at home, followed by a 3-month stay abroad (SA). Speech samples were elicited from a group of 30 Catalan/Spanish undergraduates before and after each learning context by means of an oral interview and were later analyzed in terms of lexical diversity, sophistication, density and accuracy. Additionally, we examined baseline data from 25 native speakers of English, elicited through the same task. Our results reveal that both contexts enhance significant development in lexical accuracy and that SA proves especially beneficial for growth in adverb density, which moves towards target-like norm and adds fluidity to learners’ speech. FI, in contrast, causes a significant impact on lexical sophistication, as learners seem to acquire more specific vocabulary during classroom instruction.

摘要

虽然有充分的证据表明出国留学 (SA) 可以提高外语的口语流利度，但不同类型的学习环境对口语技能的其他方面（例如词汇使用）的影响在学术研究中并没有得到太多关注，也较少受到关注。清除。本研究试图通过调查经历两种不同习得环境的高级英语学习者在口语生产中的词汇发展来填补这一空白：在国内进行正式教学 (FI)，然后在国外逗留 3 个月 (SA)。语音样本是在每次学习前后通过口头访谈从 30 名加泰罗尼亚语/西班牙语本科生中提取的，然后在词汇多样性、复杂性、密度和准确性方面进行分析。此外，我们检查了来自 25 位母语为英语的人的基线数据，通过相同的任务引出。我们的研究结果表明，这两种语境都显着提高了词汇准确性，而且 SA 证明对副词密度的增长特别有益，副词密度朝着类似目标的规范发展，并为学习者的言语增加了流动性。相比之下，FI 会对词汇复杂度产生重大影响，因为学习者似乎在课堂教学中获得了更具体的词汇。