Lexical availability and writing ability of EFL learners

Abstract Studies on lexical availability (LA) reveal a different dimension of vocabulary knowledge and development. Likewise, this study explores (a) the relationship between LA and writing ability of male and female learners and (b) differences and similarities between the tokens and types of the words they generated. An LA task and a composition test were administered to 100 (50 males and 50 females) EFL learners. The results highlight a positive correlation between LA and the writing scores for both males and females. Frequency analyses and t ‐test results also show no differences between male and female learners in terms of tokens and types of the retrieved words. Thus, lexical availability studies can provide similar pedagogical implications in instructing writing skill for both male and female EFL learners.