Effect of Fine-Grained Lexical Rating on L2 Learners’ Lexical Learning Gain

Abstract

In assessing L2 lexical learning, especially initial learning, researchers always face the problem of whether partial word learning should be counted. Existing studies have either counted partial word learning (i.e. counted both partial and complete word learning) or have only counted complete word learning. However, it is not clear whether counting partial word learning makes a difference in capturing task-based and intra-learner lexical learning gain. Few studies have investigated this potential difference and even fewer if both productive and receptive lexical learning are considered. The present study employed differently fine-grained word rating methods to assess three Chinese EFL learner groups’ performances on four vocabulary posttests after receiving three treatment tasks: a written output task, an oral output task, and a reading task. Data analyses revealed that the use of differently fine-grained scoring methods did not necessarily affect learners’ cross-task lexical learning effects significantly, but it did make a significant difference in measuring individual learners’ lexical learning gain. The findings are discussed with reference to whether and how a less or more fine-grained scoring method should be adopted in rating lexical learning.