Vocabulary Use in Academic-Track High-School English Literature Diploma Exam Essay Writing and its Relationship to Academic Achievement

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atmire.migration.oldid5390
dc.contributor.advisorRicento, Thomas
dc.contributor.authorPinchbeck, Geoffrey George
dc.contributor.committeememberKoh, Kim
dc.contributor.committeememberNaqvi, Rahat
dc.contributor.committeememberO'Brien, Mary G.
dc.contributor.committeememberHarklau, Linda
dc.date.accessioned2017-03-23T18:11:11Z
dc.date.available2017-03-23T18:11:11Z
dc.date.issued2017
dc.date.submitted2017en
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation will examine the relationship between written vocabulary use and academic achievement in academic-track Canadian high-school students. With a shift away from labour based sectors and rapid demographic shifts in large urban centres, there has been a call for academic language to be further operationalized and be given a more prominent role in mainstream public educational planning across the curricula in Canada and the U.S. Although this call for research was inspired initially from studies on language-minority children, it is clear that the register of academic English is difficult for all students: monolingual English speakers, bilinguals, and multilinguals alike. A >1,000,000-word corpus and associated student data (n=1508) from a representative sample of government-administered academic-track grade 12 English Language Arts (ELA) final exam essays were used to examine the relationships between lexical sophistication (LS) and several indices of diversity (LD: MTLD, HD-D, Maas, tokens, types, families) with three types of academic achievement: 1) Essay Score, 2) ELA and Social Studies mean score, and 3) Math Score. Academic achievement was regressed on 1) LS, 2) LD, and 3) ESL funding history status. LS explained 30% of both ELA-Social Studies Score and Essay Score, whereas LD indices were associated with Essay Score only. Early-arriving immigrant ESL status was not a significant factor in any model. Mid-frequency word families were significantly more frequent in a high-achieving student sub-corpus as compared to a sub-corpus of low-achieving students. High-achieving student writing was also significantly more similar to academic written register corpora than spoken register corpora as compared to that of low-achieving students. I present how this research might be used to further operationalize academic language, to develop tools to monitor English academic literacy development for diagnostic purposes, and to inform a strategic mastery learning K-12 academic language pedagogy that includes lexical syllabus design for content classes.en_US
dc.identifier.citationPinchbeck, G. G. (2017). Vocabulary Use in Academic-Track High-School English Literature Diploma Exam Essay Writing and its Relationship to Academic Achievement (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28660en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/28660
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11023/3676
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisher.facultyGraduate Studies
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.publisher.placeCalgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subjectEducation--Bilingual and Multicultural
dc.subjectEducation--Language and Literature
dc.subjectEducation--Secondary
dc.subjectEducation--Tests and Measurements
dc.subjectLinguistics
dc.subjectRhetoric and Composition
dc.subject.otherproductive vocabulary
dc.subject.otherlexical sophistication
dc.subject.otherlexical diversity
dc.subject.otherage of acquisition
dc.subject.otherlength of residence
dc.subject.otherlearner corpus
dc.subject.othercorpus linguistics
dc.subject.otheracademic achievement
dc.subject.otheracademic written register
dc.subject.otherBilingual
dc.subject.otheracademic English
dc.subject.othermonolingual
dc.titleVocabulary Use in Academic-Track High-School English Literature Diploma Exam Essay Writing and its Relationship to Academic Achievement
dc.typedoctoral thesis
thesis.degree.disciplineEducational Research
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgary
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrue
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