Since the past few decades, English has become increasingly important in China. English is a compulsory
subject since Grade 3 of all elementary schools with suitably qualified English teachers. English also plays a
major role in college admission decisions and promotional decisions in the workplace. In light of this, numerous
English teaching materials and courses have been developed in order to meet the diverse needs of Chinese EFL
learners. In designing the course, teaching materials and syllabus, it is crucial for the designers to gain a clear
idea of learners’ language proficiency, especially their vocabulary knowledge. For example, the latest national
“College English Curriculum Requirements” (2007) was preceded by national surveys of English vocabulary
size. The Requirements also clearly define the goal of vocabulary learning at college level as a total of 6,674
words (including 2,354 active words) and 1875 phrases.
Nation (2001) divided vocabulary into four categories: high frequency words, academic words, technical words,
and low frequency words. The most commonly used list of high frequency words is General Service List of
English Words (GSL), by West (1953), which includes around 2,000 word families. They cover about 80% of the
running words in academic texts. Technical words refer to types of words that usually occur in a specific subject
area. They differ from subject area to subject area and cover about 5% of the running words in a text. Academic
vocabulary is the vocabulary used across all academic disciplines but is not the technical vocabulary of a
particular academic discipline. Academic words are based on more Latin and Greek roots than most everyday
spoken words. They cover about 10% of the running words in an academic text. This means that knowing the
2,000 high frequency words plus academic words will give about 90% coverage of the running words in
academic texts. The last category is low frequency words. They are the biggest groups of words but only cover
about 5% of the running words in an academic text.
Much research has been done to measure vocabulary knowledge of Chinese EFL learners. For example, Ma
(2001) and Zhou & Wen (2000) tracked the vocabulary growth of science students in Chinese colleges. Shao
(2002) investigated the vocabulary size of students of normal colleges in China. Xiao (2007) investigated
breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge of 168 college students. In the vocabulary assessments reported so
far, the tested words were mostly sampled from the word list included in “College English Curriculum
Requirements”, which was based on words’ frequency, coverage and range. So far, no research has yet been done
specifically on academic vocabulary knowledge of Chinese EFL learners. In light of this, the paper reports a
comparative study on the receptive and productive knowledge of academic vocabulary of Chinese college EFL
learners. The purpose of this study is to gain an insight into the academic vocabulary knowledge of Chinese
college EFL learners, with implications for college English teaching and learning.