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recall it when required. This occurs when a lexical item is stored in
the memory as passive vocabulary, but needs a trigger to be
retrieved and become available for productive use, although it may
easily be recognized when reading or listening. The extent of pas-
sive vocabulary is commonly considered to be far larger than active
vocabulary. We should however take into account the amount of
words that we have never come across before, but are able to rec-
ognize as derivatives or compounds of known items. This is due to
the similarity to cognates in other languages, or their predictabil-
ity from context. This potential vocabulary is very difficult to
measure and is activated by inference and recycling.
The shift from receptive to productive mastery of a word is not a
linear process: Schmitt suggests that “an initial ability to use a word
productively, at least in a limited way, precedes full mastery of its
receptive aspects. Thus productive knowledge does not occur sequen-
tially after receptive; there seems to be some overlap.”28 The reason
lies in the incremental and not linear nature of vocabulary acquisition.
6. Vocabulary and text types
When considering vocabulary for productive skills, it is very
important to distinguish the oral and written codes, as the type of
words used varies considerably. According to Dodman,29 spoken
language is more dynamic, matter-of-fact, verbal, and focuses on
people, actions and processes. Moreover, as the interlocutor is pres-
ent and takes part in the conversation (or listens to the speech), a
short time is given for processing the information; therefore the
lexical density is usually quite low.30 On the other hand, written
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28 Norbert Schmitt, Vocabulary in Language Teaching, p. 119.
29 Martin Dodman, “Linguaggio verbale e linguaggio nominale. Rappresentazione dinamica e
rappresentazione sinottica”, lecture at Scuola Autunnale DILM, 2006, http://www.roberto-crosio.
net/SIS/DODMAN_Linguaggio_nominale_linguaggio%20verbale.pdf (accessed June 20,
2009).
30 “Lexical density” is the proportion between the amount of content words (nouns, adjectives,
verbs) compared to functional elements (prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions) in a text. To cal-
culate the index divide the number of content words by the total number of words in a text;
the typical figure for everyday speaking index is around 0.3–0.4 .
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