This study aimed to measure Saudi English majors’ productive vocabulary knowledge. The subjects were forty-five Saudi male students with five years of study as English Language and Translation majors at King Saud University in Riyadh. Paul Nation’s Productive Vocabulary Levels Test: Version A was administered to the subjects during the last two weeks of their final semester. The results showed poor productive vocabulary sizes under the five-word frequency bands. Furthermore, the mean scores deteriorated as the level of word frequency declined. The participants’ average vocabulary size was approximately 503 words (50 %) in the 2nd 1,000word level, 314 words (31%) in the 3rd 1,000-word level, 119 words (12%) in the 5th 1,000word level, 10 words (1%) for the 10th 1.000-word level, and 107 words (13%) in the University Word List band. It was evident that participants’ performances were highly affected by the word-frequency level in all test bands. Immediate intervention is required to improve students’ performance and to prevent such poor performance among future students.
Saudi EFL Majors’ Productive Vocabulary Size
المجلد الخامس
العدد الثاني
مجلة العلوم الإنسانية
EFL
King Saud University
Saudi Arabia
Saudi students
strategy training
vocabulary learning strategies