Zasób leksykalny obcojęzycznych użytkowników polszczyzny w świetle badań ilościowych

Polish is learnt by two types of learners; namely, heritage language learners (HLLs) and foreign language learners (FLLs). HLLs are of Polish origin and have gained their partial knowledge of language in a natural environment unlike FLLs who learn Polish in a formal institutional setting and have no Polish roots whatsoever. Lexical resources of HLLs and FLLs and their access to mental lexicon language data, even when their overall level of language proficiency is similar, seem to differ. HLLs speak more fluently, particularly when talking about everyday matters, and their production sounds more native like, being more formulaic. FLLs on the other hand, when speaking, “look for words” with more difficulty and sentences they build often sound odd. The aim of the project is to find out whether the lexical resources of HLLs are really, qualitatively and quantitatively, different to that of FLLs and if so, to what extent. In order to estimate the vocabulary size of the two groups samples of HLLs’ and FLLs’ writing at B2 level were analyzed with the use of various indices such as lexical variation, density, sophistication and Lexical Frequency Profile.