Document Type
Paper presentation
School Name
De La Salle University Senior High School
School Code
ARCH00028
Abstract / Executive Summary
Lexical richness is defined as the quality of the vocabulary knowledge and usage in a text. Despite its association with students' writing quality, further investigation is needed to assess its applicability in the Philippine context. This study aims to evaluate the extent of the lexical richness of Position Papers composed by Grade 11 English as a Second Language (ESL) students in terms of lexical diversity, density, and sophistication. This study also analyzes the overall writing quality of the aforementioned papers and their statistical relationship with the lexical richness elements. Utilizing the correlational research design, this study compares the writing quality of 100 student essays using the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Beginner, Approaching Proficiency, Proficient, and Advanced) with the lexical richness of their vocabulary using the Voyant tool, Python scripts, and Lextutor. This study's findings reveal low lexical diversity levels in the vocabulary of the participants' papers. Most of the words used fall under the basic and high-frequency categories, with few in the intermediate level. Meanwhile, the level of content richness is moderate to high, and their scores are moderately high or "Proficient." The results indicate no statistically significant relationship between lexical diversity, lexical density, and most categories under lexical sophistication. However, the use of AWL words was shown to be statistically related to the writing quality of students' position papers. The paper argues the need for explicit vocabulary instruction to scaffold students in their academic writing tasks.
Keywords:
lexical richness; lexical diversity; lexical density; lexical sophistication; writing quality
Evaluating the Relationship between Lexical Richness and Writing Quality in a Language Class for Grade 11 Filipino ESL Students
Lexical richness is defined as the quality of the vocabulary knowledge and usage in a text. Despite its association with students' writing quality, further investigation is needed to assess its applicability in the Philippine context. This study aims to evaluate the extent of the lexical richness of Position Papers composed by Grade 11 English as a Second Language (ESL) students in terms of lexical diversity, density, and sophistication. This study also analyzes the overall writing quality of the aforementioned papers and their statistical relationship with the lexical richness elements. Utilizing the correlational research design, this study compares the writing quality of 100 student essays using the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Beginner, Approaching Proficiency, Proficient, and Advanced) with the lexical richness of their vocabulary using the Voyant tool, Python scripts, and Lextutor. This study's findings reveal low lexical diversity levels in the vocabulary of the participants' papers. Most of the words used fall under the basic and high-frequency categories, with few in the intermediate level. Meanwhile, the level of content richness is moderate to high, and their scores are moderately high or "Proficient." The results indicate no statistically significant relationship between lexical diversity, lexical density, and most categories under lexical sophistication. However, the use of AWL words was shown to be statistically related to the writing quality of students' position papers. The paper argues the need for explicit vocabulary instruction to scaffold students in their academic writing tasks.
