Receptive Vocabulary Size of Male and Female Saudi English Major Graduates
Open accessAbstract
This study measured Saudi university students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge towards the end of their final semester. The subjects were 71 Saudi male and female students. The Vocabulary Levels Test, adopted from Nation’s (2008), was administered in this study. The test assesses learners’ receptive knowledge of word meaning at the following distinct vocabulary levels: the 2nd 1,000-word level, the 3rd 1,000-word level, the 5th 1,000-word level, the 10th 1,000-word level, and the Academic Word List (AWL). The results showed different participants’ performance at different word levels with decreasing mean scores as the frequency of word levels decreased. The results also showed, with no exception, that males outperformed females with statistically significant differences in all the five sections of the test. The participants’ average vocabulary size is approximately 876 and 799 words in the 2nd 1,000-word level, 436 and 355 words in the AWL, 725 and 590 words in the 3rd 1,000-word level, 580 and 477 words in the 5th 1,000-word level for males and females respectively. However, the average vocabulary size decreased dramatically in the 10th 1,000-word level to 254 words for males and 124 for females. Based on these findings, it is concluded that Saudi English Language and Translation university graduates, even with large vocabulary size in the high frequency bands, are generally still below the level of the desired vocabulary competency as EFL learners, and are in fact, in need for more support and concentration in their undergraduate study with regard to their vocabulary learning.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Alqarni (2019) found that female Saudi university students outperformed male students and statistical differences were found.
“Male students were outperformed by females and statistical differences were found.”
From The Vocabulary Knowledge of Saudi EFL Tertiary Students (2019) · cites this paper as Alqarni (2019)
Alqarni (2019) found that students' vocabulary size was limited to the low frequency levels although they achieved high scores at the high frequency levels.
“Another noteworthy finding from the study was that the students' vocabulary size was limited to the low frequency levels although they achieved high scores at the high frequency levels.”
From The Vocabulary Knowledge of Saudi EFL Tertiary Students (2019) · cites this paper as Alqarni (2019)
The comparison with Alqarni's (2019) study suggests that the students learned a considerable number of high frequency words over the four years at university, while a limited number of low frequency words were learned.
“The comparison shown in Table 2 may also suggest that the students learned a considerable number of high frequency words over the four years at university and yet a limited number of low frequency words were learned.”
From The Vocabulary Knowledge of Saudi EFL Tertiary Students (2019) · cites this paper as Alqarni's (2019)
The comparison with Alqarni's (2019) study suggests that the students' vocabulary development at the College of Languages and Translation over the four university years was quite limited.
“These figures might suggest that the students' vocabulary development at the College of Languages and Translation over these years was quite limited.”
From The Vocabulary Knowledge of Saudi EFL Tertiary Students (2019) · cites this paper as Alqarni's (2019)
Cites
Learning Vocabulary in Another Language
Nation, I. S. P. (2001) · Cambridge University Press · doi:10.1017/cbo9781139524759 · Cited by 6,608 · see citing works
Teaching and Learning Vocabulary
Sonbul, S., & Siyanova-Chanturia, A. (2021) · Research Questions in Language Education and Applied Linguistics · doi:10.4324/9780203023785-17 · Cited by 1,663 · cited 1×
“Furthermore, the importance of lexical items in L2 acquisition is also recognized by many linguists and methodologists (e.g., Wilkins, 1972; Allen, 1983; Nation, 1990, 2010.”
BackgroundHow Large a Vocabulary is Needed For Reading and Listening?
Nation, I. (2006) · The Canadian Modern Language Review · doi:10.3138/cmlr.63.1.59 · Cited by 1,436 · cited 3× · see citing works
“Furthermore, after investigating the vocabulary size of a group of highly educated L2-users of English, Nation (2006) found that they knew around 8,000 to 9,000 word families.”
BackgroundResultDeveloping and exploring the behaviour of two new versions of the Vocabulary Levels Test
Schmitt, N., Schmitt, D., & Clapham, C. (2001) · Language Testing · doi:10.1177/026553220101800103 · Cited by 1,211 · see citing works
Learning Vocabulary in Another Language: Appendixes
Nation, I. (2001) · doi:10.1017/cbo9781139524759.014 · Cited by 1,147 · cited 3×
“Vocabulary size is also often used as an indication of general proficiency in language acquisition research, where vocabulary size scores have been shown to highly correlate with scores in general proficiency tests (Alderson, 2005; Nation, 2013).”
BackgroundResultLinguistics in language teaching
Filipović, R., & Wilkins, D. (1972) · doi:10.2307/323991 · Cited by 1,105 · cited 1×
“Furthermore, the importance of lexical items in L2 acquisition is also recognized by many linguists and methodologists (e.g., Wilkins, 1972; Allen, 1983; Nation, 1990, 2010.”
BackgroundA vocabulary-size test of controlled productive ability
Laufer, B., & Nation, P. (1999) · Language Testing · doi:10.1177/026553229901600103 · Cited by 881 · see citing works
Testing Vocabulary Knowledge: Size, Strength, and Computer Adaptiveness.
Laufer, B., & Goldstein, Z. (2004) · Language Learning · doi:10.1111/j.0023-8333.2004.00260.x · Cited by 705 · see citing works
Vocabulary size and the skills of listening, reading and writing
Stæhr, L. S. (2008) · Language Learning Journal · doi:10.1080/09571730802389975 · Cited by 591 · see citing works
A reassessment of frequency and vocabulary size in L2 vocabulary teaching
Schmitt, N., & Schmitt, D. (2014) · Language Teaching · doi:10.1017/s0261444812000018 · Cited by 507 · cited 2× · see citing works
“One cannot deny the advantage of having large vocabulary size and the crucial role it plays in EFL learning and recent studies have confirmed this conclusion (cf. Nation, 2006, 2013; Schmitt & Schmitt, 2012).”
BackgroundResultVocabulary Acquisition: A Neglected Aspect of Language Learning
Meara, P. (1980) · Language Teaching · doi:10.1017/s0261444800008879 · Cited by 474 · cited 3× · see citing works
“Meara (1980) has pointed out that “most learners identify the acquisition of vocabulary as their greatest single source of problems” (p.221). This study aimed to measure the receptive vocabulary knowledge of Saudi university students (male 34, & female 37) towards the end of their final year with approximately 2300 co…”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialMARCHMAN, V. A., FERNALD, A., & HURTADO, N. (2010) · Journal of Child Language · doi:10.1017/s0305000909990055 · Cited by 339 · see citing works
Beginning to Learn Foreign Vocabulary: A Review of the Research
Nation, I. (1982) · RELC Journal · doi:10.1177/003368828201300102 · Cited by 215 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Among other things, this study provided estimates of participants’ receptive vocabulary knowledge using Nation's (1990) Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT).”
BackgroundAssessing vocabulary size through multiple-choice formats: Issues with guessing and sampling rates
Gyllstad, H., Vilkaitė, L., & Schmitt, N. (2015) · ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics · doi:10.1075/itl.166.2.04gyl · Cited by 164 · see citing works
Vocabulary size revisited: the link between vocabulary size and academic achievement
Milton, J., & Treffers‐Daller, J. (2013) · Applied Linguistics Review · doi:10.1515/applirev-2013-0007 · Cited by 156 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Treffers-Daller and Milton (2013) maintained that recent research has provided some evidence that establish the sufficient number of words needed for different language tasks.”
BackgroundMeasuring the Vocabulary Size of Native Speakers of English in New Zealand Secondary Schools
Coxhead, A., Nation, P., & Sim, D. (2015) · New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies · doi:10.1007/s40841-015-0002-3 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Diagnosing Foreign Language Proficiency: The Interface Between Learning and Assessment
Yin, M.-S. (2008) · doi:10.1080/15434300701595637 · Cited by 73 · cited 1×
“Vocabulary size is also often used as an indication of general proficiency in language acquisition research, where vocabulary size scores have been shown to highly correlate with scores in general proficiency tests (Alderson, 2005; Nation, 2013).”
ResultComparing C-tests and Yes/No vocabulary size tests as predictors of receptive language skills
Harsch, C., & Hartig, J. (2015) · Language Testing · doi:10.1177/0265532215594642 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Words as species: An alternative approach to estimating productive vocabulary size
Meara, P., & Alcoy, J. C. O. (2010) · Reading in a Foreign Language · doi:10.64152/10125/66651 · Cited by 48
The Effect of Vocabulary Size and Vocabulary Depth on Reading in EFL Context
Şen, Y., & KULELİ, M. (2015) · Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.546 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Languages learning strategies and the vocabulary size
Nacera, A. (2010) · Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.634 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Measuring English vocabulary size via computerized adaptive testing
Tseng, W.-T. (2016) · Comput. Educ. · doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2016.02.018 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Receptive vocabulary size of secondary spanish EFL learners.
Alonso, A. (2013) · Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas · doi:10.4995/rlyla.2013.1180 · Cited by 29 · cited 2× · see citing works
“In a different learning context, Canga Alonso (2013) investigated the pedagogical implications of receptive vocabulary knowledge on students’ understanding of written and spoken English discourse.”
BackgroundNation, P., & Anthony, L. (2016) · doi:10.4324/9781315716893.ch26 · Cited by 27
Waldvogel, D. A. (2013) · Journal of Language Teaching and Research · doi:10.4304/jltr.4.2.209-219 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Szabo, C. (2016) · Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics · doi:10.32601/ejal.461007 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Student EFL Teachers Receptive Vocabulary Size
ÿzönder, Ÿ. (2016) · doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.10.061 · Cited by 15
Measuring second language vocabulary knowledge using a temporal method
Tanabe, M. (2016) · Reading in a Foreign Language · doi:10.64152/10125/66717 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
English Vocabulary Size in Adults and the Link with Educational Attainment
Wilson, S., Thorne, A., Stephens, M., Ryan, J., Moore, S., Milton, J., & Brayley, G. (2016) · doi:10.1515/lifijsal-2016-0008 · Cited by 9
Measuring EFL Students` Vocabulary Size: Why and How
Kurniawan, I. (2016) · English education : jurnal tadris Bahasa Inggris · doi:10.24042/ee-jtbi.v9i1.421 · Cited by 4
Assessing Vocabulary Size: So, what's the Problem?
Cooper, T. (1997) · Language Matters · doi:10.1080/10228199708566122 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
15 of the 46 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Using TikTok as a Tool for English Vocabulary Learning in the EFL Context
Alshreef, N., & Khadawardi, H. (2023) · English Language Teaching · doi:10.5539/elt.v16n10p125 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
“, 2010), and they have found the vocabulary size of Saudi students to be low (Alqarni, 2019; Altalhab, 2019; Al-Masrai & Milton, 2012).”
BackgroundInfluentialThe Vocabulary Knowledge of Saudi EFL Tertiary Students
Altalhab, S. (2019) · English Language Teaching · doi:10.5539/elt.v12n5p55 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“A recent study by Alqarni (2019) compared the vocabulary size of 71 Saudi male and female university students at the end of their studies, and focused on certain vocabulary levels (2000 word level - 3000 word level - 5000 word level - 10000 word level) as well as an academic word list.”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialMuqaibal, M. H., Kasprowicz, R., & Tissot, C. (2023) · Language Teaching Research · doi:10.1177/13621688221146146 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“However, in a variety of contexts it has been found that students’ L2 English vocabulary breadth is often much smaller than 10,000 words (Alqarni, 2019; Laufer, 2000; Nation, 2006).”
Memory Strategies for Vocabulary Learning Employed by Saudi Undergraduate EFL Learners
Aljurbua, M. F. (2021) · Arab World English Journal · doi:10.24093/awej/th.276 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Alsowat, H. H. (2022) · Universal Journal of Educational Research · doi:10.13189/ujer.2022.100204 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“over females ([3], [11], [7], [9], [27], [78]).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialAlzahrani, S., & Alhomyani, M. (2023) · Sino-US English Teaching · doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2023.08.001 · Cited by 3
“Alqarni (2019) confirmed that it is important to estimate students’ productive vocabulary size while learning English as a foreign language in Saudi Arabia (Altalhab et al., 2019).”
BackgroundAnuar, N. N. A. N., & Aziz, A. B. A. (2024) · Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities · doi:10.47405/mjssh.v9i10.3054 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“However today, the significance of vocabulary in language learning has gained greater recognition in recent times, due to its role in acquiring a second or foreign language (Alqarni, 2019).”
BackgroundMeasuring the Academic Vocabulary Size of University Students in Nepal
Saud, M. S. (2023) · Mextesol Journal · doi:10.61871/mj.v47n1-2 · Cited by 2
“It is the most commonly used tool for measuring the size of the EFL learners’ vocabulary and has been used in multiple EFL contexts such as reading performance ( Kameli & Baki, 2013; Ş en & Kuleli, 2015 ) , and vocabulary acquisition ( Alqarni, 2019; Ibrahim et al .”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialPagbasa bilang makrong pangwika: Pagsusuri sa pag-unawa at kasanayan ng piling mag-aaral sa kolehiyo
Guzman, R. B. (2026) · International Journal of Research Studies in Education · doi:10.5861/ijrse.2026.26297
Receptive Vocabulary Size of Omani Post-Basic Education Graduates
AL-Darai, N., & Al-Mekhlafi, A. (2023) · Journal of Education and Development · doi:10.20849/jed.v7i3.1370
“Similarly, another study in the Saudi context investigated vocabulary size among 71 English majors and its relationship with gender (Alqarni, 2019).”
Backgroundالعتيبي, أ., & السفياني, د. م. م. (2023) · دراسات عربية في التربية و علم النفس · doi:10.21608/saep.2023.308196
- Authors
- Alqarni, I. R.
- Affiliations
- King Saud University (SA)
- Corresponding author
- Alqarni, Ibrahim R.
- ORCID
- Alqarni, Ibrahim R.
- Venue
- International Journal of English Linguistics
- Published
- 2018-12-29
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 111
- ISSN
- 1923-869X (ISSN-L)
- 1923-8703
- OpenAlex
- W2907822333
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 1.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- International Journal of English Linguistics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- King Saud University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Keywords
- receptive vocabulary size, vocabulary knowledge, gender differences, Saudi EFL learners, English for specific purposes, Academic Word List, university graduates
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
