Bibliografía - selección de vocabulario

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This study investigated the effectiveness of word-frequency and teacher judgments in determining students’ vocabulary knowledge and compared the predictive powers of both approaches when estimating vocabulary knowledge. Twenty-nine second language (L2) Spanish teachers were asked to predict how likely their students would know words from a 216-word Yes/No test that measures knowledge of the first 3,000 words in Spanish. The accuracy of their responses was compared with the results of 1,075 L2 Spanish students who completed the same test. To examine if the results could generalize to other L2 settings, 394 L2 English students completed a 70-word Yes/No test that measures knowledge of the first 14,000 words in English, and 15 L2 English language instructors attempted to predict which words would or would not be recognized. Results showed that for both language contexts, (1) the median teacher rater could assess students’ vocabulary knowledge with an accuracy roughly comparable to frequency, (2) the combination of teachers’ judgments displayed a stronger relationship with students’ performance on the vocabulary test than frequency, since the average of three or more teachers’ ratings improved upon frequency when examined with 1,000 bootstrapped samples, and (3) using teacher judgments and frequency together did not substantially improve the prediction of students’ vocabulary knowledge.

Este artículo examina la selección de vocabulario de cuatro libros de texto en español publicados por importantes editoriales en los Estados Unidos. El análisis se centra principalmente en los capítulos que presentan: 1) los verbos regulares; y 2) el vocabulario de la comida. Los capítulos correspondientes a los temas mencionados se analizaron en cada libro de texto usando AntConc y AntWordProfiler con el fin de obtener información sobre: 1) el número de repeticiones de cada palabra; y 2) la frecuencia de estas palabras. Los resultados revelan que la frecuencia léxica de las palabras no se toma en cuenta a la hora de seleccionar el vocabulario, ya que palabras de alta frecuencia se repiten una sola vez por capítulo. Esto muestra una deficiencia en el aprendizaje y enseñanza de vocabulario en los libros de texto de ELE. Sin embargo, hay diferencias notables entre los dos tipos de capítulos analizados, las cuales se deben tomar en cuenta al momento de decidir el tipo de vocabulario apropiado para cada capítulo.

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This article examines vocabulary selection and treatment in four beginner Spanish textbooks from major publishers in the US, specifically in the chapters that focused on: 1) regular verbs; and 2) food vocabulary. The corresponding chapters from each book were analyzed using AntConc and AntWordProfiler in order to get information about: 1) the number of times each different word is repeated; and 2) how frequent these words are in Spanish. Results revealed that lexical frequency is not the guiding principle in textbook vocabulary selection and that even highly frequent and relevant words are generally repeated only once per chapter, which indicates a deficient approach to vocabulary learning and teaching in mainstream L2 Spanish textbooks. Nonetheless, differences arise between the two types of chapters and pedagogical proposals should take such differences into account when making general suggestions about what vocabulary should be introduced in the textbooks and how it needs to be treated.

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