EFL Lexical Knowledge Depth: Proficiency Level and Order of Acquisition Parameters

Abstract

The study at hand attempts to trace the development of three EFL lexical knowledge depth aspects - meaning, synonymy and collocation- across three academic levels- high school, second and fourth-year university. It aims to trace any possible “order of development” for the three linguistic knowledge aspects. The second objective of the study is to determine whether proficiency level affects the development of the three lexical knowledge aspects. The linguistic tasks used for data collection are translation, acceptability judgment and multiple choice. The study has found that the connectivity between L1 and EFL mental lexicons affects the three lexical knowledge aspects and tends to decrease relatively as the academic level of the learners increases. Second, the research has revealed a noticeable “order” of acquisition between the three lexical aspects, though not a very strong one. Such findings are of pivotal importance for materials and syllabus designers as well as for L2/FL teachers.