Profiling Japanese EST students' vocabulary ability using the New General Service List Test (NGSLT) and the New Academic Word List Test (NAWLT)

Understanding the vocabulary profiles of students is an important point for improving classroom-based pedagogy as well as materials development based on students' abilities and needs in ESP (English for Specific Purposes). As the second phase of a longitudinal research to assess Japanese university students' vocabulary competency, the researchers collected data on the performance of second and third-year students majoring in science and engineering on the New General Service List Test (NGSLT) and the New Academic Word List Test (NAWLT) developed by Phil Bennett and Tim Stoeckel in 2015 using words from the New General Service List 1.01 (NGSL 1.01) and the New Academic Word List (NAWL) developed by Charles Browne, Brent Culligan and Joseph Phillips in 2014. The NGSL 1.01 consists of 2,801 of the most frequently-appearing words in general use, and is a revision of the original General Service List (about 2,000 words) which was compiled by Michael West in 1953. The NWAL consists of 963 frequently-appearing words in academic text, and is a revision of the original Academic Word List (570 words) which was compiled by Averil Coxhead in 2000. Both the NGSLT and NAWLT are diagnostic tests of written receptive knowledge of the New General Service List and the New Academic Word List respectively. The NGSLT and NAWLT use the same specifications as the Vocabulary Size Test (VST) which was developed by Paul Nation and David Beglar in 2007, and have relatively good test reliability. This paper introduces the background about the tests, the participants in the study, and the data collection method. It also interprets the results of the collected scores, and discusses the implications of the results between departments and years. In future studies, the researchers hope to find ways to perceive the vocabulary abilities of students in their particular ESP fields. By doing so, they can be better informed providers of instruction and create materials tailored to students' particular needs.