The Relationship of Language Proficiency to the Lexical Availability of Learners of Spanish

In a classical study under PanHispanic research, the author performs detailed descriptive analyses on the lexical availability output of Spanish foreign language learners. These were distributed on the basis of their language proficiency level on Spanish: basic and advanced. In her study, advanced learners produced a larger number of words than learners in the basic group, in practically all the cue words under examination. The exceptions were ‘The City’ and ‘Games and Entertainment’, where learners at the basic level either outperformed learners at the advanced level or behaved in a similar way. Results for these cue words show that a higher language level does not always result in a higher number of words. Other factors such as the kind of instruction, course input, or learners’ experiences should be taken into account.