Advanced search
1 file | 1.14 MB Add to list

LexPro : a plurilingual lexical profiling tool to assist teachers and researchers in analysing vocabulary of L2 input

Amaury Van Parys (UGent) , Vanessa De Wilde (UGent) , Lieve Macken (UGent) and Maribel Montero Perez (UGent)
Author
Organization
Abstract
Given the strong influence of vocabulary knowledge on L2 learners’ text comprehension (Schmitt et al., 2011), assessing the vocabulary demands of foreign language (L2) input is a crucial challenge for both L2 educators and researchers. To do so, a well-established step for the design, selection, and empirical analysis of L2 input is to use tools for lexical profiling. This involves categorizing a text’s vocabulary across levels in a word frequency list to estimate the vocabulary knowledge learners need in order to achieve satisfactory comprehension. However, current tools are mainly available for English and are built on word family-based frequency lists derived from broad corpora, which have been suggested to have more limited predictive power of learner knowledge than previously presumed (Schmitt et al., 2021). This article presents LexPro, a new plurilingual lexical profiling tool which was programmed in Python and facilitates analysis of individual texts and corpora in English, French, Spanish, and Dutch. It relies on flemmatised word frequency lists derived from subtitle corpora, on the empirical ground that these are more reflective of learner knowledge (Pinchbeck et al., 2022). Output includes general text characteristics (e.g., text length, lexical diversity), a lexical profile with accompanying visuals, an overview of the used vocabulary, and detailed insights into word repetition as well as the number of texts in which words appear. To illustrate the potential applications of the tool for both research and teaching practice, a use case is presented analyzing an Intermediate French L2 textbook. The paper concludes with practical recommendations for implementing LexPro in educators’ text selection processes.
Keywords
lexical profiling, materials development, vocabulary analysis, word frequency, word repetition, flemma, language learning, Steunpunt Diversiteit & Leren, LT3, FREQUENCY, COVERAGE, TEXT, PROFICIENCY, COMPREHENSION, LEARNERS, CORPUS

Downloads

  • (...).pdf
    • full text (Accepted manuscript)
    • |
    • UGent only
    • |
    • PDF
    • |
    • 1.14 MB

Citation

Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:

MLA
Van Parys, Amaury, et al. “LexPro : A Plurilingual Lexical Profiling Tool to Assist Teachers and Researchers in Analysing Vocabulary of L2 Input.” LANGUAGE TEACHING RESEARCH, 2025, pp. 1–25, doi:10.1177/13621688251352259.
APA
Van Parys, A., De Wilde, V., Macken, L., & Montero Perez, M. (2025). LexPro : a plurilingual lexical profiling tool to assist teachers and researchers in analysing vocabulary of L2 input. LANGUAGE TEACHING RESEARCH, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688251352259
Chicago author-date
Van Parys, Amaury, Vanessa De Wilde, Lieve Macken, and Maribel Montero Perez. 2025. “LexPro : A Plurilingual Lexical Profiling Tool to Assist Teachers and Researchers in Analysing Vocabulary of L2 Input.” LANGUAGE TEACHING RESEARCH, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688251352259.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Van Parys, Amaury, Vanessa De Wilde, Lieve Macken, and Maribel Montero Perez. 2025. “LexPro : A Plurilingual Lexical Profiling Tool to Assist Teachers and Researchers in Analysing Vocabulary of L2 Input.” LANGUAGE TEACHING RESEARCH: 1–25. doi:10.1177/13621688251352259.
Vancouver
1.
Van Parys A, De Wilde V, Macken L, Montero Perez M. LexPro : a plurilingual lexical profiling tool to assist teachers and researchers in analysing vocabulary of L2 input. LANGUAGE TEACHING RESEARCH. 2025;1–25.
IEEE
[1]
A. Van Parys, V. De Wilde, L. Macken, and M. Montero Perez, “LexPro : a plurilingual lexical profiling tool to assist teachers and researchers in analysing vocabulary of L2 input,” LANGUAGE TEACHING RESEARCH, pp. 1–25, 2025.
@article{01JZ88R3D7CXNAFEW4D2BRHRX5,
  abstract     = {{Given the strong influence of vocabulary knowledge on L2 learners’ text comprehension (Schmitt et al., 2011), assessing the vocabulary demands of foreign language (L2) input is a crucial challenge for both L2 educators and researchers. To do so, a well-established step for the design, selection, and empirical analysis of L2 input is to use tools for lexical profiling. This involves categorizing a text’s vocabulary across levels in a word frequency list to estimate the vocabulary knowledge learners need in order to achieve satisfactory comprehension. However, current tools are mainly available for English and are built on word family-based frequency lists derived from broad corpora, which have been suggested to have more limited predictive power of learner knowledge than previously presumed (Schmitt et al., 2021). This article presents LexPro, a new plurilingual lexical profiling tool which was programmed in Python and facilitates analysis of individual texts and corpora in English, French, Spanish, and Dutch. It relies on flemmatised word frequency lists derived from subtitle corpora, on the empirical ground that these are more reflective of learner knowledge (Pinchbeck et al., 2022). Output includes general text characteristics (e.g., text length, lexical diversity), a lexical profile with accompanying visuals, an overview of the used vocabulary, and detailed insights into word repetition as well as the number of texts in which words appear. To illustrate the potential applications of the tool for both research and teaching practice, a use case is presented analyzing an Intermediate French L2 textbook. The paper concludes with practical recommendations for implementing LexPro in educators’ text selection processes.}},
  author       = {{Van Parys, Amaury and De Wilde, Vanessa and Macken, Lieve and Montero Perez, Maribel}},
  issn         = {{1362-1688}},
  journal      = {{LANGUAGE TEACHING RESEARCH}},
  keywords     = {{lexical profiling,materials development,vocabulary analysis,word frequency,word repetition,flemma,language learning,Steunpunt Diversiteit & Leren,LT3,FREQUENCY,COVERAGE,TEXT,PROFICIENCY,COMPREHENSION,LEARNERS,CORPUS}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{1--25}},
  title        = {{LexPro : a plurilingual lexical profiling tool to assist teachers and researchers in analysing vocabulary of L2 input}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1177/13621688251352259}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}

Altmetric
View in Altmetric
Web of Science
Times cited: