The Relationship Between Vocabulary Depth and Argumentative Essay Writing Proficiency Among IELTS Test Takers in Pakistan

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Published: Sep 30, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.53057/linfo/2022.4.3.9
Keywords:
language proficiency, correlation, vocabulary depth, argumentative essay writing, IELTS test-takers, statistical package for social sciences

Main Article Content

Arbia Abdullah
MPhil, Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College University, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
Aleem Shakir
Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College University, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

Abstract

The main object of this correlational study was to determine the relationship between vocabulary depth and argumentative essay writing proficiency among Pakistani IELTS test takers. Students with greater vocabulary knowledge and discourse expertise would produce texts of higher quality as compared to students with less of these skills. For this purpose, it manipulated three instruments for collecting the required data: a prompt for writing an argumentative essay, an IELTS band descriptor for scoring writing tasks, and the Word Association Test (WAT) for assessing vocabulary depth knowledge. It involved 129 Pakistani IELTS test-takers as its population. The sample comprised 42 females and 87 male participants. The data was analysed using SPSS version 23. Pearson's product moment analysis was used to determine the relationship between both continuous variables (vocabulary depth and argumentative essay writing), and the results revealed a negative or weak relationship between vocabulary depth and IELTS essay band scores (r = -.032, p =.721). The current findings concluded that there was no statistically significant correlation between both variables. Furthermore, this research study would have certain suggestions for teachers, test designers, and material originators on how to incorporate the dimension of word associations into the creation of word knowledge. It would have some pedagogical implications and instructions for increasing linguistic aptitude levels, which would be useful in academic institutions, language assessment, and language teaching and learning centres such as IELTS training centers.


 

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How to Cite
Abdullah, A., & Shakir, A. (2022). The Relationship Between Vocabulary Depth and Argumentative Essay Writing Proficiency Among IELTS Test Takers in Pakistan. Linguistic Forum - A Journal of Linguistics, 4(3), 68–77. https://doi.org/10.53057/linfo/2022.4.3.9
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Vol. 4 No. 3 (2022): Linguistic Forum - A Journal of Linguistics
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Articles
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Author Biographies

Arbia Abdullah, MPhil, Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College University, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

Miss Arbia Abdullah is lecturer of English in Government College. She has completed her MPhil in Applied Linguistics in 2022.She is passionate about raising the quality of English language teaching. Her area of interests are ELT and Testing and Evaluation.

 

Aleem Shakir, Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College University, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

Dr. Aleem Shakir is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College University, Faisalabad. His areas of interests are ELT, Phonetics and Phonology, ESP, Testing and Evaluation and Corpus Linguistics.

 

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