English Vocabulary Size of Korean University Students

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to measure the receptive English vocabulary size of Korean university students and to see if there is any difference in the size according to gender and year in college. Four hundred and sixty six students in two Korean universities participated in the study and their receptive vocabulary size was measured by an expanded and revised version of Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, 2000; Schmitt et al., 2001). The results showed that the students' receptive vocabulary size in general was over 3,000 word families, which is the threshold level necessary for reading authentic texts in English. It was also found that there was a significant difference in the vocabulary size according to year in college, but no gender effect on vocabulary size. On the basis of results, it is suggested that Korean university students need to expand and deepen their vocabulary knowledge through an extensive reading of diverse authentic texts and other vocabulary-learning activities during the college years. It is also suggested that the teachers need to incorporate vocabulary learning strategy training in their instruction so that students can expand their vocabulary size effectively on their own.