Depth of academic vocabulary knowledge: Investigating depth of academic vocabulary knowledge among language-minority community college students

Little is known about language minority community college students’ depth of L2 academic vocabulary knowledge, including how it relates to their breadth of L2 academic vocabulary knowledge and the relationship to their L1 skills. This exploratory study was carried out with a sample of 10 language minority students enrolled in either advanced ESL language classes or introductory content courses at a U.S. urban community college. Students completed several language assessment tasks, including: the University Word Levels Test (Beglar & Hunt, 1999) to assess breadth of academic word knowledge; a modified Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge Task, based on Paribakht and Wesche (1993) and Wesche and Paribakht (1996), to assess depth of academic word; and a native language (L1) academic writing task to assess L1 academic proficiency. Data indicate that students with greater breadth of academic word knowledge also demonstrated greater depth of academic words. Students’ L1 academic proficiency was also related to variation in the students’ academic vocabulary knowledge, with those students exhibiting weak academic skills in both the L1 and English demonstrating particularly weak academic vocabulary knowledge.