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Article published In:
Graded Resources for Second and Foreign Language Learning
Edited by David Alfter and Thomas François
[ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics 175:1] 2024
► pp. 8–24

Graded resources for learning and teaching foreign languages

An overview

ORCID logo | UCLouvain
ORCID logo | Aix-Marseille Université
Innovative resources for teaching vocabulary have emerged during the last decades, among which the so-called ‘graded resources’, i.e. lexicons or inventories where linguistic forms have been associated with a difficulty level, having in mind a target reader. The idea of ‘grading’ in Education is not new and has evolved over time: vocabulary or text scales (grades) have been approached as an educational tool with the means available at each period of time. In this survey, our aim is to show how current approaches of graded resources for foreign language learning are rooted in the tradition of building frequency lists for education. We then synthesize the body of work that has been undertaken to design graduated resources, highlighting the different methodologies applied as well as existing resources.
Keywords: Graded linguistic resources, graded lexicons, vocabulary learning, second and foreign language teaching, CEFR
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The roots of graded lexicons
    • Principal milestones in the field of frequency lists
    • Lists for foreign language teaching
  • Graded lexicons for vocabulary learning
    • Graded resources from experts
    • Graded resources inferred from educational corpora
    • Other strategies to grade lexical units
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 September 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.00024.fra
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