Enhancing lexical competence in English Language Learning: An Emphasis on writing skill.

Fortalecimiento del léxico en el aprendizaje del inglés: un enfoque en la competencia escrita

Abstract

Academic performance in acquiring English vocabulary is closely tied to the quality of teaching within educational institutions. Therefore, the objective was to identify the lexical skills of ninth-grade basic education students through a linguistic corpus to strengthen vocabulary acquisition, as well as collect information from English teachers regarding the methodology and practices used in class related to vocabulary development. In the creation of the textual linguistic corpus, lexical variety, semantic context, and formal and informal vocabulary were analysed to identify student errors in writing. For the formulation of the corpus question, the ninth-grade English textbook was considered, specifically Unit 1’s theme, with the purpose of analysing knowledge levels relative to the students' academic grade. In this sense, the question was: “Write about individual characteristics, daily routines, and activities you do in your free time.” Precise results were obtained in their writing, later revealing the most common shortcomings.  The methodological data gathered through interviews focused on analysing how English teachers structure their classroom instruction, including their use of gamification tools to enhance engagement, strategies for evaluating vocabulary, the incorporation of metacognition to foster students' self-awareness in learning, and methods for assessing acquired knowledge to measure academic progress.

KEYWORDS: Vocabulary; difficulty in learning; writing; teaching method.