Exploring the measurement of vocabulary size to differentiate Brazilian Portuguese-English bilinguals' access to grammatical knowledge in the l2

Authors

  • Ricardo Augusto de Souza Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
  • Jesiel Soares Silva Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31513/linguistica.2015.v11n1a4629

Abstract

This study explored the validity of a measure of vocabulary size -- the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) -- as a predictor of Brazilian Portuguese-English college level bilinguals capacity to access grammatical representations when using their L2 under temporal pressures. We compared performances in the VLT and in a global test of ability in English L2: the Oxford Placement Test (OPT). Afterwards, participants performed a speeded acceptability judgment task in English, in which a ceiling of 8 seconds was set for each judgment call. Results show that only those participants who classified as high proficiency in both the VLT and the OPT were capable of detecting grammatical violations. We interpret the results as indicating that a measure of vocabulary size is a predictor of both fluency in lexical access and fluency in grammatical knowledge access of L2 speakers. 

DOI: 10.17074/2238-975X.2015v11n1p187

  

Author Biographies

Ricardo Augusto de Souza, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Professor Associado de Língua Inglesa e docente do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Linguísticos (Faculdade de Letras da UFMG). Bolsista de Produtividade em Pesquisa do CNPq (Nível 2).

Jesiel Soares Silva, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Doutorando do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Linguísticos da Faculdade de Letras da UFMG (Área: Linguística Teórica e Descritiva)

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Published

2015-08-12

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2015): Aquisição e Processamento da Linguagem

Section

Articles

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