Diane Schmitt will be visiting us at UCLouvain from 7 March to 11 March. She will give a presentation entitled "Can writing facilitate the development of a richer vocabulary?" on Monday 7 March.
Abstract
This talk considers the extent to which existing research on vocabulary acquisition and writing adequately addresses the vocabulary learning potential of writing. It proposes areas where additional research is needed to investigate the vocabulary learning potential of writing instruction. It first reviews the challenges L2 writers face with vocabulary size, word knowledge and lexical fluency from the perspective of vocabulary research. It then considers how vocabulary is commonly operationalised in writing studies. Next, it considers how vocabulary is treated in writing instruction. Finally, it offers proposals for research that aim to bring the concerns of vocabulary research and writing research into closer alignment.
Bio
Diane Schmitt was a Senior Lecturer in EFL/TESOL for 25 years at Nottingham Trent University and now works as an independent educational consultant. Her pedagogic and research interests include all aspects of English for academic purposes, vocabulary acquisition and pedagogy, writing from sources/plagiarism, materials development, and language development in English Medium Instruction contexts. Her work has appeared in the following journals: Language Teaching, ELTJ, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Reading in a Foreign Language, and Language Testing. Together with Norbert Schmitt, she has co-authored Vocabulary in Language Teaching, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and Focus on Vocabulary Books 1 &2 (Pearson, 2011).