GEMA Online™ Journal of Language Studies 113 Volume 13(1), February 2013 ISSN: 1675-8021 A Case Study Of Tertiary Learners’ Capability In Lexical Knowledge Naginder Kaur naginder.kaur@gmail.com Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia ABSTRACT Lexical competence is crucial in ensuring academic success at all levels. At tertiary level, sufficient word knowledge and lexical comprehension ensure sufficient literacy of language skills as learners need to cope with challenging academic tasks in their respective field of study. This paper reports findings of a case study of pre-degree Malaysian learners enrolled at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Perlis. The study was undertaken to find out if these learners have sufficient lexical ability before they embark on a degree programme. Nine learners of varying proficiency levels of high, average and low language proficiency were selected for this study. The data were collected in sequential two-phased procedure. The first phase involved diagnostic stage of probing learners’ level of word knowledge with online Vocabulary Levels Test by Laufer and Nation. Subsequently, learners’ capability within the scope of word form, spelling and pronunciation was explored through the Academic Word List Test and in- depth interviews with the participants. The findings revealed that the learners’ word mastery level is only between 1,000 and 3,000 words, which is far below the minimum level required for tertiary education. These insights thus inform the researcher that urgent measures must be taken in order to redeem the situation. Hence, a structured vocabulary learning programme is deemed necessary in the Malaysian English language curriculum to help learners acquire sufficient lexis before embarking on tertiary education. This would also provide our tertiary learners with the avenue to make them employable and marketable graduates with firm language proficiency in general and lexical competence in particular. Keywords: lexical; vocabulary; capability; Academic Word List; Malaysian tertiary learners INTRODUCTION Vocabulary or lexis or lexical item refers to the semantics of the language. Vocabulary also appears as the headword in a dictionary entry (Jackson, 1998). It relates to knowledge of words as well as word meanings and thus, forms the basic building blocks of language learning experience. As the cornerstone of language proficiency, lexical knowledge is the key element as it enables one to respond to the four language skills effectively. With adequate lexical knowledge, a learner has sufficient input to partake in productive skills, namely, daily oral communication and written work. It is estimated that about 3,000 spoken word families are required to cover about 96% of one’s daily communication lexicon use or about 2,000 words to maintain conversations (Schmitt, 2000). Similarly, lexical competence also ensures ability to cope with various types of reading (Nation, 2001). Possessing good knowledge of how the various systems inherent in a language may not necessarily enable one to communicate but it is usually possible to