Classrooms as Lexical Environments

In many second/foreign-language classrooms, students are expected to learn much or even most of their vocabulary without explicit instruction, simply through exposure to a rich variety of words in meaningful contexts. In fact, however, there are few studies which would allow us to estimate the number of words learners are typically exposed to in second/foreign-language classrooms. In this study, the vocabulary available in the speech of ten teachers in intensive communicative ESL classes for children in Quebec was analysed using specially designed computer programs. The words which occurred in classroom transcripts were classified according to their status as high-frequency or ‘unusual’ words, according to lists developed by Nation (1986 ). The working assumption was that a large number of unusual words would be indicative of a rich lexical environment, whereas the absence or extreme rarity of such words would indicate that the classroom vocabulary was poor. The number of unusual words was found to be quite low in short periods of classroom interaction. However, an interpretation of the findings suggest that the actual richness of the vocabulary available may be greater than it appears in terms of this measure.