Academic literature on the topic 'Vocabulary breadth'

Abstract Testing the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge is needed to see its effect on the vocabulary size of EFL students. The study aims to know at the relationship between the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge and the vocabulary size of EFL students. This research was conducted in the 8th grade of Trimulia Junior High School Jakarta. This research uses a correlational research design. The sample was 51 EFL learners. The Vocabulary Level Test (VLT) and the Words Associates Test (WAT) were administered in this study. The scores were presented with descriptive statistics for two tests of the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge. The results showed that the breadth and depth of the vocabulary knowledge test had a negative correlation with the L2 vocabulary size of EFL students. Using Statistic Product moment, the correlation coefficients found at 0.01 for the breadth and 0.11 for depth is included in the very weak category. So, there is a very weak correlation between the tests of breadth and deep vocabulary knowledge and the size of students' vocabulary. Keywords: breadth, depth, vocabulary knowledge, vocabulary sizes

<p class="Abstract">Breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge have been studied from many different perspectives, but the related literature lacks serious studies dealing with their effects on vocabulary profiles of EFL learners. In this paper, with an aim to fill this gap, the relative effects of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge on L2 vocabulary profiles were analysed. In the first stage of the study, learner essays (n=84) and native essays (n=75) were compared in terms of vocabulary profiles through the use of an online database, and each participant obtained vocabulary profile scores from four different levels. In the next stage, the learners’ depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge were measured by using two different vocabulary tests, and then the scores they obtained on these tests were hierarchically regressed on their profile scores. The results suggested that both breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge had significant and robust effects on the L2 vocabulary profiles of the EFL learners; however, depth of vocabulary knowledge appeared to be a better predictor of vocabulary profiles than breadth of vocabulary knowledge.</p>

This study determines whether breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge are related to L2 ease and success in lexical inferencing. To this end, two tests meas- uring vocabulary breadth and depth were administered to 50 participants. Two weeks later, all participants received an inferencing task and rated the degree of perceived ease in inferencing on a 6-point Likert-scale questionnaire. The findings indicated that although both vocabulary breadth and depth played an important role in lexical inferencing success, vocabulary breadth made a more important contribution. The results further revealed that neither vocabulary breadth nor depth had a significant effect on perceived ease of inferencing.Cette étude détermine dans quelle mesure l’étendue et la profondeur des connais- sances lexicales sont liées à la facilité en L2 et à la réussite en inférence linguis- tique. À cette fin, nous avons fait passer à cinquante participants deux examens pour évaluer l’étendue et la profondeur de leurs connaissances lexicales. Deux semaines plus tard, nous avons donné à tous les participants une tâche d’inférence et en avons évalué le degré de facilité perçue avec un questionnaire en 6 points sur l’échelle Likert. Les résultats indiquent que si l’étendue et la profondeur des connaissances lexicales jouent tous les deux un rôle important dans la réussite en inférence lexicale, l’étendue du vocabulaire y contribuent davantage. L’étude a également démontré que ni l’étendue ni la profondeur des connaissances lexi- cales n’ont un effet significatif sur la facilité d’inférence perçue.

This study was an attempt to investigate the particular role of learners’ depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge in their listening comprehension. Moreover, it also sought to find out whether there is any difference between high and low listening proficiency groups in performance on depth and breadth dimensions of vocabulary knowledge. To this end, a total of 117 junior university students majoring in English language and literature participated in the study. In order to assess the learners’ listening comprehension, the listening section of a paper-based version of the TOEFL was administered. Their depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge were measured through performance on Word Associate Test and Vocabulary Levels Test, respectively. The results of data analysis indicated that both depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge are determining factors in successful listening comprehension. However, it was found out that breadth or size of vocabulary knowledge provides a more significant contribution than depth to listening comprehension. Furthermore, the results of the study indicated that depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge are not significant predictors of listening comprehension in the low listening ability group.

AbstractIn lexical development, the specificity of phonological representations is important. The ability to build phonologically specific lexical representations predicts the number of words a child knows (vocabulary breadth), but it is not clear if it also fosters how well words are known (vocabulary depth). Sixty-six children were studied in kindergarten (age 5;7) and first grade (age 6;8). The predictive value of the ability to learn phonologically similar new words, phoneme discrimination ability, and phonological awareness on vocabulary breadth and depth were assessed using hierarchical regression. Word learning explained unique variance in kindergarten and first-grade vocabulary depth, over the other phonological factors. It did not explain unique variance in vocabulary breadth. Furthermore, even after controlling for kindergarten vocabulary breadth, kindergarten word learning still explained unique variance in first-grade vocabulary depth. Skill in learning phonologically similar words appears to predict knowledge children have about what words mean.

Vocabulary knowledge is the foundation of English learning. This study, based on vocabulary knowledge frameworks, aims to further explore the effect of two dimensions of vocabulary knowledge i.e. breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge, on two types of reading comprehension tasks, i.e., standard multiple choice question and summary writing in Chinese EFL context. 124 English majors in a Chinese university were randomly selected, and their vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension ability were tested. The results of the study showed that both breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge make contributions to reading comprehension; the breadth of vocabulary knowledge has a greater predictive power on multiple-choice reading comprehension than the depth of vocabulary, while vocabulary depth was the stronger predictor of post-reading summary writing. The results indicate that teachers need to attend to vocabulary knowledge and improve learners’ reading ability by enhancing their vocabulary knowledge.

This article reports the results of a study on the relationship between second language vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, and reading comprehension. A special aim was to discover the role of vocabulary depth in the prediction and explanation of L2 learners’ reading comprehension. Two proficiency levels, intermediate and advanced, were compared. Vocabulary breadth was measured with the Vocabulary Size Test (Nation & Beglar, 2007), vocabulary depth with the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (Wesche & Paribakht, 1996), and reading comprehension with a test compiled of sections from two former matriculation examination tasks. The three constructs showed strong positive correlations in both groups of subjects. However, based on the results, vocabulary breadth and depth seem to be stronger predictors of reading comprehension skills in lower levels of proficiency than on the advanced level.

Purpose Children who are hard of hearing (CHH) tend to have reduced vocabularies compared to children with normal hearing (CNH). Prior research on vocabulary skills in children with hearing loss has focused primarily on their breadth of knowledge (how many words are known). Depth of vocabulary knowledge (how well words are known) is not well documented for CHH. The current study used linear mixed models (LMMs) to investigate growth trajectories of vocabulary depth and breadth in CHH relative to age-matched CNH. Method Participants for this study included 155 children (93 CHH, 62 CNH) enrolled in a longitudinal study. Examiners administered a standardized measure of vocabulary knowledge at ages 7, 8, and 9 years. We constructed multiple LMMs with fixed effects for group and age. The models included various combinations of random intercepts for subject and item and random slope for age. Results For depth, CHH showed significant and stable deficits compared to CNH over time. For breadth, CNH showed greater vocabulary breadth, but the group differences diminished with age. For CHH, higher aided audibility, age, and maternal educational level were associated with greater vocabulary breadth and depth. Age at hearing aid fitting was not. Conclusions A major advantage of using LMM is that it allowed us to cope with missing data points while still accounting for variability within and across participants. Assessment of both vocabulary breadth and depth may be useful in identifying school-age CHH who are at risk of delays in language outcomes.

This study took 37 junior students who were from an institution of Nanchong as research objects. In this study, SPSS was used for making quantitative analysis on the collected data, intending to explore the relationship of middle school students’ vocabulary breadth knowledge and listening comprehension. The results show: (1) The current vocabulary breadth level of middle school students accounted for 80.86% of the overall requirements, and their listening comprehension level reached 85.87% of the general requirements, both of which were in an upper level; (2) Students’ vocabulary breadth and listening comprehension level in different gender didn’t have a significant difference; (3) There was a significant positive correlation between middle school students’ vocabulary breadth and listening comprehension. This study has some guiding significance on the listening teaching of primary and secondary schools.

For decades, vocabulary size tests have been built upon the idea that if a test-taker knows enough words at a given level of frequency based on a list from corpus, they will also know other words of that approximate frequency as well as all words that are more frequent. However, many vocabulary size tests are based on corpora that are as out-of-date as 70 years old and that may be ill-suited for these tests. Based on these potentially problematic areas, the following research questions were asked. First, to what degree would a vocabulary size test based on a large, contemporary corpus be reliable and valid? Second, would it be more reliable and valid than previously designed vocabulary size tests? Third, do words across, 1,000-word frequency bands vary in their item difficulty? In order to answer these research questions, 403 ESL learners took the Vocabulary of American English Size Test (VAST). This test was based on a words list generated from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). This thesis shows that COCA word list might be better suited for measuring vocabulary size than lists used in previous vocabulary size assessments. As a 450-million-word corpus, it far surpasses any corpus used in previously designed vocabulary size tests in terms of size, balance, and representativeness. The vocabulary size test built from the COCA list was both highly valid and highly reliable according to a Rasch-based analysis. Rasch person reliability and separation was calculated to be 0.96 and 4.62, respectively. However, the most significant finding of this thesis is that frequency ranking in a word list is actually not as good of a predictor of item difficulty in a vocabulary size assessment as perhaps researchers had previously assumed. A Pearson correlation between frequency ranking in the COCA list and item difficulty for 501 items taken from the first 5,000 most frequent words was 0.474 (r^2 = 0.225) meaning that frequency rank only accounted for 22.5% of the variability of item difficulty. The correlation decreased greatly when item difficulty was correlated against bands of 1,000 words to a weak r = 0.306, (r^2 = 0.094) meaning that 1,000-word bands of frequency only accounts for 9.4% of the variance. Because frequency is a not a highly accurate predictor of item difficulty, it is important to reconsider how vocabulary size tests are designed.

This study explored the relationship between vocabulary size (i.e., breadth of knowledge), depth of vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension of Chinese-speaking ESL (English as a second language) university students in Canada. Both aspects of vocabulary knowledge, breadth and depth, continue to play roles in vocabulary research. Few studies, however, have focused on which aspect plays the predominant role in L2 reading. Using three language tests---the GRE (Graduate Record Examinations) for reading comprehension, Nation's (1990) Vocabulary Levels Test, and Read's (1998) Word Associates Test---and verbal reports, the general purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, and the specific focus was to find out which aspect of vocabulary knowledge, breadth or depth, has greater impact on determining reading comprehension performance. The results demonstrate that (1) test scores on vocabulary size, depth of vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension are positively correlated, (2) vocabulary size is a stronger predictor of reading comprehension than depth of vocabulary knowledge, and (3) breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge are closely interrelated and mutually facilitative. The findings suggest the importance of vocabulary size in reading comprehension for the population tested.

The aim of this study was to identify effective teaching strategies for vocabulary acquisition for primary school-age children in natural sciences. Primarily, using qualitative method observation, it was empirically shown that the primary vocabulary instructions used during natural science studies were indirect incidental word learning activities such as conversation in the classroom. A test was standardized from Homegaard and Johansson Kokkinakis (2006) to asses and measure pupils’ breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge for vocabulary words that were used during science class. The conducted test showed that the pupils’ trough incidental word learning had low vocabulary acquisition, primarily because of the everyday language used in a scientific context, leading this study to aim to answer the following questions:   Will providing explicit instructions for word acquisition increase pupils’ vocabulary?   Which possible explanations are there for the vocabulary increase?   An intervention practice was conducted to improve vocabulary acquisition, using five evidence-based suggestions for meaningful vocabulary intervention activities, provided by Steele and Mills (2011) and Becks, McKeown and Kucan (2002). The steps are based on explicit instructional activities which were used in teaching natural science. The same test that was used to asses and measure pupils’ breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge of vocabulary words was used after the intervention. The empirical results showed that instructional strategies providing explicit instruction were successful in increasing pupils’ breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge. Hence, this study identifies the empirical link between vocabulary instructions and vocabulary acquisition, as to increase the pupils’ breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge, by the acknowledgement of the difference between everyday language and scientific vocabulary with explicit teaching of the scientific language.

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
華語文教學系
105
So far, most previous studies of vocabulary knowledge have primarily focused on English learners’ vocabulary knowledge, with standardized English vocabulary knowledge test instruments employed as main research tools (Qian, 2000, 2002; Bai & Chen, 2005; Li, 2007; Wang, 2010; Wang, 2014). Meanwhile, the lack of standardized vocabulary knowledge test remains as one problem that lead to the falling behind of Chinese vocabulary knowledge research. In view of this, present study aims to fill the gap by designing test of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge for Chinese learners. The test design is based on English Vocabulary Level Test (VLT) and Word Associates Test (WAT), with target words selected from 4000 word band of “Xiandai hanyu yuliao ku ci pin tongji [Word Frequency Statistics of Modern Chinese Corpus]”. Besides of its high reliability and validity, the instrument also able to accurately (95% confidence level) estimate vocabulary size, distinguish four different proficiency levels, reduce the probability of successful random guessing, describe the correlation between breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge, and measure vocabulary knowledge of Chinese learners from various regions. Overall, results of this study are: (1) Chinese breadth of vocabulary knowledge showed a high positive correlation (r = 0.952) with depth of vocabulary knowledge, while also significantly contributed to the prediction (90.6%) of depth knowledge; (2) Breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge showed a moderate positive correlation (with coefficient of 0.591 and 0.614 respectively) with reading comprehension, while also fairly contributed to the prediction of reading comprehension. Though breadth knowledge’s contribution of 0.3% additional explained variance was insignificant, depth knowledge already accounted for 37.7% variance in reading comprehension. Therefore, to achieve the goal of strengthening Chinese learners’ reading comprehension, an effort should be put forth to improve their depth of vocabulary knowledge, something that should begin with expanding their vocabulary size, hence indicates the importance of vocabulary as a core component of language.

Abstract in English, Sepedi and Sesotho
In this thesis, the researcher used an explanatory sequential mixed methods research design to investigate the role of English academic vocabulary on reading comprehension of grade 11 English First Additional Language (EFAL) learners in the Free State province, Fezile Dabi district in South Africa. The current study is an attempt to determine whether the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge have a bearing on grade 11 EFAL learners' reading comprehension, and to examine which one of these variables, that is, breadth or depth of vocabulary knowledge, makes a more important contribution to reading comprehension. It also attempts to investigate the Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS) used by grade 11 EFAL learners. For the non-experimental quantitative study, the participants of the study were thirty EFAL learners who were chosen based on available sampling. To collect the relevant data, two tests measuring breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge (Section A and Section B) and a reading comprehension were administered to all participants. To achieve its aim 1, two independent variables namely, the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) which measures vocabulary breadth and Word Associate Test (WAT) which measures vocabulary depth were used. Then, the dependent variable was the reading comprehension test in which the participants were asked to read the passages and answer some multiple choice questions. Pearson product-moment correlations and multiple regression were chosen as the dominant techniques for the statistical analyses. The results obtained from the analysis of the data indicated that while both depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge play an important role in EFAL learners' reading comprehension performance, depth of vocabulary knowledge makes a more important contribution. The results further revealed that depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge are positively correlated, that is, those learners who had large vocabulary size had a deeper knowledge of the words, too. Then, the findings from the qualitative study based on the data collected through eight focus group discussion participants about the VLS used by grade 11 EFAL learners, highlight that it is important to explore and broaden learners’ vocabulary learning strategic knowledge. Also, results reflect that learners can take control of their own vocabulary learning as long the teachers train and then offer them opportunities to learn and practice the strategies.The qualitative data for this study was analysed using the content analysis method.
Nyakisiso ye e tserwe ka mekgwa ye mentshi ye e hlakantshitsweng lebaka e le go nyakishisha ka karolo yeo polelo ya Sepediya poleloya tlatselletso e ralokang karolo dithutong tsa polelo ya go bala taodiso mphatong wa lesometee (11) polelong go bana kua porofenseng ya Foreistata e bitswang Fezile Dabi, districting (lefapheng) gona mo Aforika Borwa. Gonabjalo dithuto di ipontsha go ikemisetsa go tseba ka bophara le bogolo ba tsebo ka polelo ya sepedi ka seo e leng sona Mphatong wa le sometee (11), polelong ya tlatselletso ya bana ba mphato wa lesometee ka go bala ga taodisho. Go nyakega di nyakisiso ka mekgwa yeo oka e berekisang ke bana ba Mphato wa lesometee polelong ya tlatselletso. Go thuto yeo e tiilego batseakarolo ba masome a mararo (30) ba polelo ya tletselletso e leng bana ba sekolo bao ba kgethilweng ka mokgwa wa dinyakisiso tse di ntshitswego. Go humana palo ya mannete, dihlahlobo tse pedi (2) tseo ditlago go lekanetsa bogolo le bophara ba tsebo ya go bolela le go bala taodisho e filwe batseakarolo kamoka. Go humana maikemisetso a pele (1). Tseo di ikemetsego di bolelwe, le hlahlobo ya polelo ya mantswe eo e lekanyetsago polelo ka bophara e berekishitswe. Seo se ikemetsego e be ele go bala teko ya taodiso ye batseakarolo ba kgopetsweng go bala ditemana le go araba dipotsiso tse mmalwa tseo dikgethilweng. Dipoelo tseo di humanwego gotswa go dipalo tsa tseo ditserweng ka bophara le go bolela ga polelo kapa yona tsebo ya polelo yeo e ralokileng karolo e bohlokwa go polelo ya tlatselletso go baithuti ka go bala taodiso yeo e tsereng karolo ka bophara kapa bogolo ba tsebo ya polelo e dira gore go be bohlokwa gotseyeng karolo. Dipoelo go tswela pele di bontsha bogolo le bophora ka tsebo polelo di ya kopana di ya tsamaisana nang ka tsela ya maleba, Baithuti ba palo ya godimo bao ba nang le tsebo ya polelo yeo e tibileng ka mantswe le bona baya amega. Gotswa go dinyakisiso tseo di fitisisago go humanwe gore dipalopalo go tswa go dihlopa tse sesawi tseo kapa bao batsereng karolo ka mekgwa ya nyakisiso kapa tsebo ya polelo yeo e berekisitswego go bana ba Mphato wa bo lesometee (11) polelong ya tlatselletso e hlagisa gore go bohlokwa gore bogolo ba baithuti bainyakisisetse ka tsebo ya mekgwa ya polelo. Dipoelo di bontsha thuto ya polelo go barutegi bao barutiwago ba filwe monyetla wa go ithuta le go tsea karolo go mekgwa ya go ithuta e fapaneng.
Mokgwa ona o tswakilweng wa ho hlahloba karolo ya puo ya Senyesemane ka ho bala kutlwisiso ya diithuti tsa Sekolo sa Pele sa Puo ea Senyesemane sa Pele (EFAL) seprofinseng sa Free State seterekeng sa Fezile Dabi, Arika Borwa. Phuputso ya morao tjena ke boiteko ba ho bona hore na bophara le botebo ba tsebo wa mantswe di na le sebopeho sa ho bala sekolo sa EFAL, mme ho hlahloba e nngwe ya mefuta ena, ke hore, bophara kapa botebo ba tsebo ya mantswe, e etsa monehelo wa bohlokwa haholwanyane ho bala kutlwisiso. E boetse e leka ho batlisisa mekgwa ya ho ithuta ya mantswe (VLT) e sebediswang ke barutwana ba 11 EFAL. Bakeng sa dipatlisiso tse ngata, barupeluwa ba thuto ba ne ba e-na le diithuti tse mashome a mararo tsa EFAL tse kgethilweng di thehilwe ho sampole e fumanehang. Ho bokella boitsebiso bo nepahetseng, diteko tse pedi tse lekanyang le bophara ba tsebo ya mantswe (Karolo ya A le Section B) mme kutlwisiso ya ho bala e ne e tsamaiswa ho bohle ba barupeluwa. Ho finyella sepheo sa yona 1, mefuta e mmedi e ikemetseng, e leng. Tlhahlobo ya disebediswatsa vocabulary (VLT) e lekanyang tekanyao ya mantswe le Testing (WAT) e lekanyang e tibeleng ya mantswe e sebedisitsweng. Jwale, moelelo o itshetlehile ka ho bala teko ya kutlwisiso eo barupeluwa ba ileng ba koptjoa hore ba bale dipatlisiso le ho araba dipotso tse ngata. Diphello tse fumanweng ha ho hlahlojwa boitsebiso bo bontshiitse hore ho tseba hore boitsebiso bo bongata bo tebileng le bobopeho ba tsebo ya mantswe bo phetha karolo ya bohlokwa haholo. Diphello di ile tsa tswela pele ho senola hore tsebo le tsebo ya tsebo di tsamaisana hantle, ke hore, baithuti ba neng ba e-na le boholo ba di-vocabulary bana le tsebo e tebileng ya mantswe, hape. Jwale dithuto tse tswang thupelong ya boleng bo thehilweng boitsebisong ba dihlopha tse robedi tsa dipuisano tsa dihlopha tsa dipuisano ka sehlopha sa VLS se sebedisitsweng ka dihlopha tsa bo 11 ba EFAL di bontsha hore ke habohlokwa ho hlahloba le ho atolosa tsebo ya diithuti tsa ho ithuta tsebo. Hape, diphello di bontsha hore barupeluwa ba ka nka boikarabelo ba ho ithuta mantswe ha nako e telele matichere a ntse a kwetliswa mme jwale a ba fa menyetla ya ho ithuta le ho sebeisa manqheka.
Language Education, Arts and Culture
D. Phil. (Education)

This chapter brings to light how Woolf’s work transitions from treating flowers as representational emblems to deploying them as complex metonymical chains of self-deconstructing, proliferating, and reconstructed scenes of meaning. Drawing attention to the extensive botanical references to apples and to poppies throughout the breadth of Woolf’s oeuvre as examples of the complexity of her vegetal vocabulary, especially as it relates to attitudes towards peace on the eve of war and life in the face of invading death, this chapter suggests we find a Woolf whose view of the natural word was central to her ideas of war and peace.

Throughout the history of jazz, the guitar has been an omnipresent voice as a rhythm section instrument and a solo voice. Having a strong guitarist in any jazz ensemble is a benefit and significantly increases the breadth of material that an ensemble can effectively perform. Taking a student with limited notational staff reading and chord vocabulary on the journey toward being a well-functioning guitarist in a jazz ensemble is no small feat! By understanding guitar function in jazz and melodic technique best practices, school music teachers can have a positive impact on young guitarists. This chapter addresses the technical possibilities/limitations of the guitar, diagnoses the needs and strengths of a young guitarist, recommends best practices, and provides a hands-on demonstration of learning through notated melodic and chordal examples.

Data exchange specifications not only must be broad and general to achieve acceptance, but also must be customizable in a controlled and interoperable manner to be useful. The Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS) suite of data exchange specifications (known as DEXs) uses templates to enable controlled customizability without sacrificing breadth or interoperability. DEXs are business context-specific subsets of ISO 10303 Application Protocol (AP) 239, subject to additional constraints imposed by the templates. A PLCS template defines how AP239 entities and their attributes will be instantiated using an externally-defined controlled vocabulary defined in a Reference Data Library. Template instantiations are defined using an Instantiation Path (IP) specified using an arcane syntax that must be manually written by the template developer. The PLCS information model is formally defined in the ISO 10303 EXPRESS language, but there is no formalism used at the template level. A challenge for newcomers to PLCS is to dive into and understand all the bespoken, non-standardized and PLCS-specific technologies (domain-specific languages and software) used to develop and implement the templates. DEXML presents an approach based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML) enabling the use of mainstream software and technologies to develop and implement DEXs, reducing the need for nonstandard and unfamiliar languages and tools.

Abstract A model of how a product should function to satisfy customers is an essential element in clarifying, identifying, and establishing product architectures. Such functional models greatly enhance the generation of creative form solutions to a chosen architecture. A wider breadth of solutions is generally possible, implementing new and stable technologies. In turn, using the recent concepts of design repositories, the possibilities exist to archive, retrieve, compute, reconfigure, and reason with the product forms. To realize these benefits to the fullest extent possible, functional modeling needs further theoretical development. A formalism of function classes, vocabulary, topologies, and methodology is a first step towards this goal. Recent research efforts have focused on each of these elements, where great strides toward repeatable formalisms have been made. Yet, across the engineering design field, very little active experimentation has been pursued to test the veracity of these elements, individually and as a whole. We address this issue here through a preliminary set of experiments conducted at three separate universities. Design teams and individuals are asked to create functional models, in the context of product development, with and without the formalisms. The outcomes of the modeling effort are analyzed to determine the repeatability of the process. Early results are quite encouraging. Very repeatable results are obtained for three product evolutions, including a toaster, a power screwdriver, and a toy dart gun. In addition, weaknesses in current formalisms are uncovered, pointing to new directions for advancing the field and for carrying out more advanced experimentation.