In addition, it is generally concluded that the size of a person's receptive vocabulary is larger than that of his or her productive vocabulary. For example, several researchers conclude that the size of one's receptive 13 vocabulary doubles that of one's productive vocabulary (Clark, 1993; Marton, 1977; Michel, 1972;). Chamberlain (1965) reports that the receptive vocabulary of the average English speaker is five times larger than their productive vocabulary. Takala (1984) suggests that Finnish learners of English have a receptive vocabulary not much wider than their productive vocabulary. However, estimates about the quantity relationship between one's receptive and productive vocabularies may not be possible, since the estimation can depend on the way a test is set up or the way in which results are interpreted (Melka, 1997).
- implications for #vocabulary , #comprehensible-input