Lexical diversity and language development

About this book

"Various facets of vocabulary richness, including lexical diversity and use of rare words, have an important role in assessing first and second language proficiency, diagnosing progress and testing theories of language development. There are, however, considerable difficulties in quantifying these variables reliably. This book reviews and evaluates different methods of measuring how vocabulary is deployed in spontaneous speech and writing, before introducing alternative approaches which can assess overall lexical diversity, measure morphological development and compare the development of different word classes. These practical solutions are validated and illustrated by their application to a succession of data sets, including speech and writing, and first and second language. The book also contains a glossary that throws light on the confusing proliferation of measures used in language assessment, sample transcripts, and documentation for a new and more flexible version of the vocd software developed by the authors."--Jacket.