JELT_V5_N3_RP5 Anindya Syam Choudhury Journal on English Language Teaching 2249 – 0752 5 3 34 42 Lexical Competence, Breadth of Vocabulary Knowledge, Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge, Receptive Vocabulary, Productive Vocabulary Although it is a core component of a language user's overall linguistic competence, vocabulary has traditionally not received the kind of attention it deserved, being usually lumped with other kinds of competence till 1980s and 1990s when researchers started focusing on it with great interest. The present paper discusses what the notion of lexical competence entails, and also attempts to look at how vocabulary researchers have conceptualized its dimensions, especially the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge. The paper also discusses the different ways in which these dimensions of lexical competence can possibly be measured, drawing data from an ongoing cross-sectional study on lexical competence in Assam University. July - September 2015 Copyright © 2015 i-manager publications. All rights reserved. i-manager Publications http://www.imanagerpublications.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=3563