Acquiring, teaching and testing vocabulary
Mats Mobärg · International Journal of Applied Linguistics · 1997
The main argument of this article is that the treatment of foreign language vocabulary in an educational context will vary predictably according to whether the pedagogical activity is founded on a structural or a lexical/collocational view of language. It is argued that in a structural approach, for which the author expresses a preference, vocabulary learning is primarily a frequency‐ and input‐based individual endeavor, whereas the lexical approach is said to be more teaching‐ and textbook‐oriented. As a consequence, there will also be a difference in the way vocabulary is tested. It is argued that a statistical testing method is more suitable in a structural context, whereas the lexical context will call for teaching‐based tests.