ERIC Number: EJ1468571
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1479-0718
EISSN: EISSN-1747-7530
Available Date: 0000-00-00
The Impact of Multilingualism and Proficiency on L2 Vocabulary Knowledge: Contrasting High and Low Multilinguals
International Journal of Multilingualism, v22 n2 p433-456 2025
This study investigates the effects of multilingualism and the degree of proficiency in different languages on vocabulary knowledge among Spanish language learners. Participants completed a 160-word meaning recall test designed to measure their knowledge of the 8,000 most frequent Spanish words and a self-assessment questionnaire on their multilingual profile. The results show that students with high multilingual profiles (knowing more than three languages) demonstrated greater vocabulary knowledge than learners with low multilingual profiles (knowing three or fewer languages), especially for words in low-frequency vocabulary ranges. However, the positive impact of multilingualism on vocabulary knowledge is only significant among learners with a high proficiency in Spanish (C1-C2 level), suggesting that identifying as highly proficient in multiple languages is advantageous only when learning vocabulary at higher proficiency levels. These results corroborate the benefits of multilingualism for fostering vocabulary development in a foreign language, while offering a nuanced picture of how additional languages (LX) are acquired by multilingual learners.
Descriptors: Vocabulary Development, Language Proficiency, Multilingualism, Word Frequency, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Spanish, Student Characteristics, Self Evaluation (Individuals), Profiles, Metalinguistics, Learning Processes, Language Tests, Foreign Countries, Recall (Psychology), College Students
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Slovenia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia; 2Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford, Oxford,UK; 3Department of Language Studies, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada; 4Modern Languages and Literatures, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, USA; 5Department of Spanish and Portuguese, UC Davis, Davis, CA, USA