This study presents the creation and validation of LexEst, a short 5-minute test to assess vocabulary knowledge in Estonian. Our freely accessible test consists of 90 items and is designed for L2 speakers of Estonian. LexEst is modeled after the original Lexical Test for Advanced Learners of English. Similarly to other test variants, our test has been adapted to assess vocabulary knowledge at varying proficiency levels. Our findings demonstrate that LexEst provides an objective measure of the Estonian vocabulary of L2 learners, aligning well with subjective language proficiency indicators, such as self-assessed skills. In addition, higher LexEst scores and shorter response times are associated with higher CEFR-level language courses and a greater daily use of Estonian. Higher LexEst scores are also associated with an earlier age of acquisition in Estonian and a higher perceived importance of learning Estonian.

How do sensory experiences shape the words we learn first? Most studies of language have focused on hearing children learning spoken languages, making it challenging to know how sound and language modality might contribute to language learning. This study investigates how perceptual and semantic features influence early vocabulary acquisition in deaf children learning American Sign Language and hearing children learning spoken English. Using vocabulary data from parent-report inventories, we analyzed 214 nouns common to both languages to compare the types of meanings associated with earlier Age of Acquisition. Results revealed that while children in both groups were earlier to acquire words that were more strongly related to the senses, the specific types of sensory meaning varied by language modality. Hearing children learned words with sound-related features earlier than other words, while deaf children learned words with visual and touch-related features earlier. This suggests that the easiest words to learn are words with meanings that children can experience first-hand, which varies based on children’s own sensory access and experience. Studying the diverse ways children acquire language, in this case deaf children, is key to developing language learning theories that reflect all learners.

This longitudinal study investigates the development and interrelation of adolescent learners’ L2 English vocabulary knowledge and extramural English (EE) input. The study examines the longitudinal development of L2 English receptive vocabulary knowledge, EE input and the dynamics between L2 proficiency and EE input. Data were collected at four time points by administering vocabulary tests and questionnaires on EE activities. Generalized additive mixed models and growth curve models indicated significant vocabulary growth, particularly in the early years of secondary school, which slowed down toward the end of the study. EE activities such as gaming, social media and reading positively predicted vocabulary development, while watching television with L1 subtitles had a negative effect. Temporal network analysis revealed reciprocal relationships, suggesting that L2 proficiency influences EE input and vice versa. The findings underscore the importance of EE in L2 vocabulary development and highlight the dynamic interplay between language learning and extramural activities.

Early language development has rarely been studied in hearing children with deaf parents who are exposed to both a spoken and a signed language (bimodal bilinguals). This study presents longitudinal data of early communication and vocabulary development in a group of 31 hearing infants exposed to British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English, at 6 months, 15 months, 24 months and 7 years, in comparison with monolinguals (exposed to English) and unimodal bilinguals (exposed to two spoken languages). No differences were observed in early communication or vocabulary development between bimodal bilinguals and monolinguals, but greater early communicative skills in infancy were found in bimodal bilinguals compared to unimodal bilinguals. Within the bimodal bilingual group, BSL and English vocabulary sizes were positively related. These data provide a healthy picture of early language acquisition in those learning a spoken and signed language simultaneously from birth.

An increasing number of studies have shown that pretesting L2 word knowledge before a study phase can enhance subsequent learning. However, little is known about pretesting effects in the context of incidental L2 vocabulary acquisition. This study explores the effects of pretesting on L2 vocabulary learning through reading, focusing on the moderating effect of the pretest format. One hundred and forty-three participants were randomly assigned to a nonpretested condition or three pretested conditions (meaning recall, meaning recognition, and form recognition). In the pretested conditions, participants completed a vocabulary pretest, followed by a meaning-focused reading task and three vocabulary posttests. The findings show that the meaning recall and form recognition groups were impacted most by pretesting in terms of learning outcomes and perceptions of the learning intervention. However, the pretesting effect on posttest scores was small and statistically nonsignificant, suggesting a minimal impact of pretesting on incidental learning outcomes.

Although word lists have generated a great deal of attention from researchers, there has been no comprehensive review of the applications of word lists in second language learning and teaching. This article reviews the development, validation, and applications of 50 word list studies that were published and discussed in major international peer-reviewed Applied Linguistics and TESOL journals from 2013 to 2023. It shows that the methodology of word list development and validation has become more sophisticated and word list developers can see many potential applications of their lists in research and pedagogy. However, most applications of recently developed word lists have been restricted to the BNC/COCA lists developed by Paul Nation, and little is known about the degree to which most word lists have been used in pedagogical contexts. Our review indicates several directions for future research on word lists, including exploring the impact of published lists on pedagogy, replicating word list studies for learners in underrepresented contexts, and developing sustainable, low-cost methods of developing word lists to allow teachers and learners to create lists serving their own needs.

Based on the simple view of reading (SVR), we investigated factors associated with reading comprehension in Second Language (L2) minority children learning a highly consistent orthography through a network analysis. Bilingual and monolingual children participated in the research. Consistent with prior findings, reading speed supported reading comprehension for L1 learners, whereas, for L2 learners, correct decoding carried greater weight than reading speed. In monolingual children, vocabulary and morphosyntactic comprehension contributed jointly and independently to reading comprehension success. However, only vocabulary facilitated reading comprehension in bilingual children, with morphosyntactic skills showing no influence. While monolinguals benefitted from a rich vocabulary and good morphosyntactic knowledge for reading speed and accuracy, in bilingual children, only L2 reading speed was affected by linguistic skills.

The main aim of this study, which presents the Slovenian adaptation of the Macarthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory CDI–III, was to investigate the characteristics of language development in monolingual Slovenian-speaking children aged 30–48 months. In addition, we examined the relationships between different measures of child language assessed by the CDI–III, namely vocabulary, grammar and metalanguage. The sample comprised 301 children whose language was assessed by their parents using the Slovenian version of the CDI–III. The results indicate that language development at this age continues to progress relatively quickly, particularly in terms of children’s metalinguistic abilities, although there are large individual differences in language ability between children of the same age. The findings also indicate that some of the pre-existing relationships established between the different domains of infant and toddler language ability persist into early childhood, with vocabulary emerging as an important predictor of children’s grammar.

Although family factors are considered important for children’s language acquisition, the evidence comes primarily from affluent societies. Thus, this study aimed to examine the relations between family factors (family’s socioeconomic status [SES], home literacy activities, access to print resources, and parental beliefs) and children’s vocabulary knowledge in both urban and rural settings in China. Data from 366 children (urban group: 109, 4.85 years; rural group: 257, 4.89 years) were collected. Results showed that whereas family’s SES significantly predicted access to print resources and children’s vocabulary knowledge in the rural group, parental beliefs directly predicted children’s vocabulary knowledge in the urban group. Multigroup analysis showed that the associations of family’s SES and access to print resources with children’s vocabulary knowledge were stronger in the rural group than in the urban group. Our findings highlight the importance of considering contextual settings when conceptualising the role of family factors in children’s language acquisition.

Both the quantity and quality of the maternal language input are important for early language development. However, depression and anxiety can negatively impact mothers’ engagement with their infants and their infants’ expressive language abilities. Australian mother-infant dyads (N = 30) participated in a longitudinal study examining the effect of maternal language input when infants were 24 and 30 months and maternal depression and anxiety symptoms on vocabulary size. Half the mothers had elevated depression and anxiety symptoms during at least one point in the study (at 6, 12, 18, 24, or 30 months). The results showed that only maternal input measures (word tokens, types, and mean length of utterance) predicted vocabulary size. While no evidence was found that brief periods of maternal depression and anxiety negatively impacted early vocabulary development, the findings highlight the critical importance and possible mitigating effects of maintaining good quality mother–infant interactions during early development.

Factors which impact bilingual language development can often interact with different language features. The current study teases apart the impact of internal and external factors (chronological age, length of exposure, L2 richness, L2 use at home, maternal education and maternal L2 proficiency) across linguistic domains and features (vocabulary, morphology and syntax). Participants were 40 Arabic-speaking sequential bilinguals acquiring English (5;7-12;2, M = 8;4). Length of exposure predicted vocabulary and morphology, while chronological age predicted syntax. L2 richness also predicted vocabulary and syntax, although the impact on syntax was selective across structures. This split between syntax on the one hand, and vocabulary and morphology on the other, reflects the more embedded properties of the former; this contrasts with vocabulary and morphology, where transfer from the L1 and L2 may be more strongly dependent on the availability of shared forms across languages. Further implications are considered for sequential bilinguals in education contexts.

This study explored monolingual and multilingual two- to five-year-olds’ reliance on a non-verbal and a verbal cue during word-referent mapping, in relation to vocabulary knowledge and, for the multilinguals, Dutch language exposure. Ninety monolingual and sixty-seven multilingual children performed a referential conflict experiment that pitted a non-verbal (pointing) cue and a verbal (mutual exclusivity) cue. Mixed-effect regressions showed no main effects of vocabulary and language exposure. An interaction between vocabulary and group showed that lower vocabulary scores were associated with a stronger reliance on pointing over mutual exclusivity for multilinguals (but not monolinguals). Furthermore, an interaction between vocabulary, language exposure, and cue word (novel vs. familiar label) indicated that multilinguals with lower exposure and lower vocabulary showed a stronger reliance on pointing over mutual exclusivity when a novel rather than familiar word was used. These findings suggest that multilingual and monolingual children go through different trajectories when learning to map words to referents.

This study investigates the referential forms children use to introduce characters in Swedish, in a cross-sectional sample of oral narratives by 100 Turkish/Swedish bilinguals aged 4 to 7 and in a longitudinal sample from age 4 to 6 (N = 10). We analysed development with age and how language proficiency (expressive vocabulary) and exposure affect children’s use of referring expressions, with a focus on referential appropriateness. In addition, a qualitative analysis of the characteristics of high- and low-performing children was carried out. The results show significant effects of age and language proficiency, but not of language exposure on appropriate use of referring expressions. At age 7, 69% of the characters were introduced with an indefinite NP. The Turkish/Swedish bilinguals were found to lag behind in their use of indefinite NPs in comparison to Swedish-speaking children investigated in previous studies, with little crosslinguistic influence from L1 Turkish.