La English lexical competence among university students in Mexico
Abstract
The present study focuses on investigating a dimension of lexical competence: the receptive vocabulary size in English of 345 university students in Mexico. The Vocabulary Size Test (VST) by Nation and Beglar (2007) of 100 questions was adapted, allowing estimates of up to 20,000 words. The general results indicate that university students have an average receptive vocabulary of 11,367 words and that they follow a linear pattern according to their self-perceived level of English. The VST turned out to be a valid and reliable instrument to determine not only lexical competence, but also the language proficiency.
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