What Percentage of Receptively Known English Words : Can Japanese University Students Produce and Spell Correctly?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the percentage of English words receptively known to Japanese learners of English at the university level that they can spell out. Two kinds of tests were prepared: one to measure the receptive knowledge of vocabulary and the other to measure the productive knowledge of vocabulary. The receptive test was designed to investigate whether or not an examinee knows the meaning of each word. The productive test was designed to investigate whether or not only an examinee can produce each word and also spell it out correctly. The target words in the receptive test and in the productive test were the same. Further, the target words in the tests were decided considering the parts of speech (nouns, verbs, and adjectives), word length (number of alphabets), and word frequency. First, 56 university students at the department of English took the receptive test, and then, after about two weeks, they took the productive test. The results showed that (1) Japanese learners of English can produce and correctly spell 61.6% of the English words they know receptively, and (2) the ratio may vary according to the differences in the word frequency, parts of speech (nouns, verbs, and adjectives), and word length (number of alphabets).