VOCABULARY SIZE AND LEXICAL FREQUENCY PROFILE USED BY EFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN ESSAY WRITING

Abstract

By having knowledge about vocabulary size of the students, teachers may provide materials based on students’ vocabulary size and may help them increase their vocabulary size when they are exposed to vocabulary items in slightly higher level than what they have possessed (Laufer and Nation, 1999). This study intends to determine the vocabulary size and lexical frequency profile (LPF) used by EFL university students. Forty-three students participated in this study and the results showed that the average vocabulary size of the students was 7402 word families and their LFP showed that 89.21% of the 1st 1000 word list were still used by the students while the ideal percentage was 75%. The finding also showed that there was no significant positive correlation between VST score and the LFP percentage. This infers that students preferred using common words to using advanced words even though they have enough knowledge of advanced words.