Productive Vocabulary across Discourse Types

One of the most illuminative predictors of oral performance, lexical diversity (LD), is often neglected or, when used, it is often estimated incorrectly. In this study, we used dedicated software that combines an algebraic transformation model and curve fitting to explore whether there are differences in LD among four types of discourse (procedural discourse, single picture descriptions, story telling, and recounts) and to assess to what extent age influences LD when using each of the aforementioned types of discourse. A LD hierarchy was found with discourse. However, age influenced LD for specific types of discourse. Clinical implications will be discussed