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This paper contributes to a research program within extensive reading (ER) and "Reading in a Foreign Language" using corpora to simulate ER input to develop vocabulary through incidental learning to 9,000 words. This helps researchers/teachers evaluate ER. If corpora indicate no 'pathway' from smaller to larger vocabulary sizes through authentic ER input, with vocabulary recurrence rates sufficient for incidental learning, then graded readers or other pedagogy appear essential. Studies offer different conclusions due to modeling issues. This study replicates previous research on a larger corpus of general fiction, with improved modeling. For every vocabulary size, a substantial amount of comprehensible fiction is found, with enough repetition of vocabulary from subsequent levels that pathways from smaller to larger vocabulary sizes are possible without graded readers. Prior estimates of approximately 3 years to acquire 9,000 words at 1 hour a day are underestimates, with modeling indicating 2 hours a day would be required.

This study evaluates the potential for incidentally learning early reading vocabulary through the extensive viewing (EV) of children's movies/television with subtitles. Recent research has investigated how much exposure to important vocabulary EV and extensive reading (ER) provides. Investigations compute the number of repetitions of target vocabulary in corpora designed to represent EV/ER. Curriculum time estimates are then computed based on the time needed to reach vocabulary repetition thresholds linked to incidental learning. This study focuses on an understudied area of EV, namely children's transition to literacy. It investigates whether early reading vocabulary is available in children's movies/television, a form of compelling, comprehensible input. Recent research has found vocabulary acquisition gains from EV are enhanced by subtitles. Therefore, this study analyses 743 subtitles from children's movies (4.8 million words) and 3174 subtitles from children's series (6.4 million words). Using two recent wordlists representing early reading vocabulary, vocabulary frequency and approximate curriculum time estimates are computed for three thresholds linked to incidental vocabulary acquisition, i.e. 6, 12 and 20 encounters. Results indicate that EV with subtitles could support the development of an oral language vocabulary that contains a pool of words needed for early reading, and provide print exposure to this essential vocabulary.

This paper computes estimates of the potential for Extensive Reading (ER) and Extensive Viewing (EV) to support the academic and discipline-specific vocabulary needs of students. While research into ER/EV for general vocabulary is well-established, only recently has academic vocabulary begun to be researched. Given curriculum time constraints, information on which academic vocabulary items might be learnable incidentally is useful, and this study provides teachers with information on which specific academic vocabulary items from multiple academic wordlists have a reasonable chance of being learned incidentally. It operationalizes ER/EV through corpora representing general fiction, television programs, and movies. It estimates the pedagogical time it would take to meet target vocabulary at different possible thresholds for incidental learning (6, 12, 20 times) with estimates for each computed for multiple possible reading rates (100, 260, 350 wpm) and viewing rates (80, 140, 200 wpm). Results report individual curriculum time/input estimates for over 2000 academic vocabulary targets across multiple subjects. Findings indicate ER/EV are pedagogies that could substantially support academic vocabulary development. A tool is released for teachers to compute personalized estimates using the reading rates of their students.

The oral language proficiency of students in early education is crucial as teachers draw on this as a resource when developing literacy. There is a need to better understand what this oral language resource consists of at school entry, particularly the diversity amongst children so as to address inequalities. This article reports a study on a key component of oral language, namely productive vocabulary. It profiles the oral language vocabulary in approximately 3.6 million words produced by a large sample of almost 800 children under the age of five. The results are reported in a productive vocabulary resource, structured as a list of 2767 vocabulary targets. This profile represents highly productive vocabulary presumably known by most children as well as more advanced vocabulary not part of every child's oral language. The article demonstrates the pedagogical implications of this research in the context of the National Literacy Learning Progressions of the Australian National Curriculum.

Background: The language that children are exposed to in their early years is enhanced by children's picture books. It is important to better characterise this input, and recent research has begun to explore corpora of narrative picture books. However, previous research has been restricted by methodological limitations that make it difficult to develop large datasets. Further, information texts become increasingly important as children progress through school, but little is known about the language of their earliest form, namely, informational picture books. The current study investigates how informational and narrative picture book exposure might change the language environment of children in a way that supports reading development. Methods: The study applies data science methods to build a larger language model than previously possible and investigates the lexical profile of over 2000 narrative and information picture books. Picture book vocabulary is innovatively derived from digital sources of books read‐aloud online, which pushes the field forward by providing researchers access to larger pools of data than previously possible. Detailed comparisons of informational and narrative picture books are reported regarding their lexical diversity, density, morphology, academic vocabulary and semantic clusters. Models are developed to estimate the additional word‐type exposure a child may encounter in their language environment from narrative and informational picture books. Results: The study demonstrates that information and narrative picture books expose children to substantially different semantic environments. It is demonstrated that information picture books provide extensive exposure to academic vocabulary, providing important input aligned with later reading needs. Further, computational models indicate that book reading once every day or second day over a year might boost unique‐word exposure by approximately 10% for some language environments. Conclusions: Combining informational and narrative picture books enhance the language environment of children more than narratives alone, providing more lexical diversity, density and complex morphology. Highlights: What is already known about this topic: Recent research has shown how picture books alter the language environment of children by adding lexical quality and quantity to their vocabulary input.Internationally, reading research and curricula have seen increased advocacy for early exposure to information texts to support later reading demands.The earliest form of informational texts is picture books; however, little is known about their lexical properties and how this might support reading development. What this paper adds: This study adds the first large‐scale analysis of the vocabulary in information and narrative picture books.It provides new data and methods for reading researchers, allowing access to larger pools of picture book language than previously possible.The paper demonstrates that vocabulary diversity, density and morphological complexity are enhanced in a child's language environment when information picture books and narratives are used, compared with reading narratives alone. Implications for theory, policy or practice: In line with current research and curriculum trends, increased early exposure to informational texts enhances the language environment of children.Information texts and narrative texts are both valuable inputs; however, incorporating regular reading of both information picture books and narratives enhances children's lexical input more than exposure only to narrative picture books.Information picture books should also be recommended as they provide substantial early exposure to content area academic vocabulary important for reading in the middle years and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on one of the most widely used resources by reading teachers during early‐emergent literacy, the high‐frequency wordlists commonly called 'sight words. Existing sight word resources available to teachers are extremely outdated and/or methodologically unsound. In this Teaching and Learning in Action article, a new research‐based list of high‐frequency words is released for teachers, the Children's Picture Book Sight Words (cpb sight words). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used a new computational linguistics tool, the Coh-Metrix, to investigate and measure the differences in cohesion and lexical network density between native speaker and non-native speaker writing, as well as to investigate L2 proficiency level differences in cohesion and lexical network density. This study analyzed data from three corpora with the Coh-Metrix: the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE) as an L2 higher proficiency group, the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS) as a native speaker baseline, and a collected EFL corpus from Indonesia for the L2 lower proficiency data. Statistical investigation of the Coh-Metrix results revealed that five out of six Coh-Metrix variables used in this study did not detect proficiency level differences in L2 but the tool was consistently able to distinguish between L2 and native speaker writing. Differences included that L2 writing contains more argument overlap, more semantic overlap, more frequent content words, fewer abstract verb hyponyms and less causal content than native speaker writing.

There are few published estimates of vocabulary sizes amongst students in tertiary education. Research does not offer estimates of the vocabulary size tertiary students might be expected to possess, though estimates exist for K-12 education, some EFL contexts, and the general population. Such research is important. For reading comprehension during tertiary education, a vocabulary of minimally 10,000 words is recommended, along with proficiency in academic vocabulary. A recent study of three universities in the United Kingdom concluded pedagogical intervention was required, since estimates indicated undergraduates knew fewer than 10,000 words. A subsequent study of a New Zealand university found students knew 16,000 words and pedagogical intervention was not required. The current study investigates 433 tertiary students at an Australian university to determine if students required vocabulary support. It contributes to a research record allowing for comparisons internationally, nationally, and over time. Methods employed included the Vocabulary Size Test/VST and Academic Vocabulary Test/AVT. Results indicate an average vocabulary size of 16,117 words, with academic vocabulary well-known. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drosophila suzukii Matsumura is an invasive species affecting berry crops and cherries throughout North America, South America, and Europe. Previous research suggests that in temperate climates, the overwintering success of D. suzukii is likely dependent on access to food, shelter, and adequate cold hardening. We performed a multi-state study under field conditions for two winters to determine whether D. suzukii sex, phenotype (summer-morphotype, winter-morphotype), and life stage (adults, pupae) affected survival over time while recording naturally-occurring spatial and temporal variation in temperature. Access to food was provided and the flies were buried under leaf litter. Baited traps were deployed to determine whether local populations of D. suzukii were active throughout the winter season. The duration of exposure, mean daily temperature, and cumulative time below freezing significantly affected survival. Below freezing, D. suzukii survival was significantly reduced, particularly in northern locations. In contrast, we observed sustained survival up to 10 wk in southern locations among adults and pupae. Biotic factors also significantly affected survival outcomes: female survival was greater than male survival, winter-morphotype survival was greater than summer-morphotype survival, and adult survival was greater than pupal survival. In the north, wild D. suzukii were captured only in early winter, while in the south they were found throughout the winter. These data suggest that although adult D. suzukii may overwinter in sheltered microclimates, this ability may be limited in regions where the ground temperature, or site of overwintering, falls below freezing for extended durations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]