Investigating vocabulary knowledge among English as a Second Language (ESL) learners

Abstract Vocabulary knowledge is a multitudinous phenomenon. This study has dealt with the 1) receptive, 2) controlled-productive and 3) productive dimensions of it with a view to explore the gaps between these three dimensions. To this end, the study has used such instruments as 1) an adapted receptive vocabulary level test, 2) an adapted controlled-productive vocabulary level test and 3) a free writing task to test receptive, controlled-productive and productive vocabulary knowledge of a group of 25 ESL learners from Odisha in India, studying at the Intermediate level in two phases with a gap of eight months between the phases. The findings of the study show that 1) there are gaps between learners' receptive, controlled-productive and productive vocabulary knowledge, 2) the gaps are more pronounced between receptive and controlled-productive, and receptive and productive than between controlled-productive and productive, and 3) similar patterns of gaps exist between these three types of word knowledge, even after eight months.