Korean EFL Learners’ Written Vocabulary Development: Writing Task and Learner Proficiency

The study aims to investigate Korean college students’ written vocabulary development in terms of writing tasks and learner proficiency levels in a semester-long writing course. Two types of writing tasks (essay writing and free writing) were used to tap differing aspects of EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge. Two different types of learner proficiency levels were associated with the vocabulary use in writing. The students’ vocabulary development was analyzed by the VocabProfile (Cobb, 2002) that produces four lexical frequency lists: first 1000 frequent words (K1); second 1000 frequent words (K2); academic word list (AWL); and off the list words (OLW). OLW is considered to be the most infrequent vocabulary among the frequency lists. The significant mean changes appeared in OLW showing an increase in essay writing and a decrease in free writing. In terms of learner proficiency, the more proficient students’ AWL scores increased, while their K2 scores decreased. In contrast, the less proficient students’ AWL use declined and their K2 improved. With the task’s effects further considered, in essay writing, the more proficient students’ AWL significantly improved, while the less proficient students’ AWL reduced. In free writing, the more proficient students’ K2 reduced, but the less proficient students’ K2 increased. Implications and suggestions are discussed in the study.