Lexical Facility

The book explores the impact of vocabulary size and retrieval speed on second language performance, introducing a novel three-dimensional construct called lexical facility, which also includes consistency as a measure of vocabulary skill. The first part details how these dimensions influence lower-level text processing and overall language performance. The second part presents seven studies analyzing the sensitivity of these dimensions to proficiency levels in academic English. Harrington's accessible framework addresses theoretical and methodological issues relevant to researchers and practitioners in second language acquisition.