The Effects Of Vocabulary Knowledge Of EFL Chinese College Students On Their Reading Comprehension

Vocabulary knowledge is an important aspect of second language (L2) vocabularyacquisition, and it is proved to be a fundamental component of second language acquisition(SLA). In light of the current developments in L2 vocabulary acquisition and assessment,vocabulary knowledge is no longer viewed as a one-dimensional construct rather amulti-dimensional construct. Various but complementary vocabulary knowledgeframeworks have been proposed, in which breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledgeoccupy a primary and central position. Since vocabulary knowledge is the basis of otherlanguage skills, such as listening, speaking, reading and writing, it is believed thatvocabulary knowledge is the most important factor in L2 reading comprehension, thoughL2 reading is affected by many other factors as well, such as background knowledge,reading strategies and affective variables. In previous studies on L2 vocabulary acquisition,much attention has been paid to the breadth of vocabulary knowledge and its relation toreading comprehension; only a very limited number of studies have explored therelationship between the depth of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension.Given such a condition, the present study investigates the relationship between thebreadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension on the basis of theframework of vocabulary knowledge proposed by Nation (1990, 2001). The present study,consisting of three tests, namely Productive Vocabulary Size Test, Depth of VocabularyKnowledge Test and Reading Comprehension Test, is conducted with 76 subjects,including 35 non-English majors from one intact class of Beijing Institute of Technology(BIT) and 41 English majors from one intact class of BIT. The Pearson correlation analysisand the multiple regression analysis programmed in SPSS 13.0 are chosen as the mainanalysis tools for all the data collected from the present study.The major findings of the present study indicate that: (1) L2 learners'breadth ofvocabulary knowledge significantly and positively correlates with their depth of vocabularyknowledge. The vocabulary knowledge of the intermediate L2 learners grows in bothdimensions: breadth and depth; (2) both the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge aresignificantly and positively correlated with reading comprehension. For the depth dimension, the word part and grammatical function components are significantly correlatedwith reading comprehension. But there does not exist a significant correlation between thecollocation component of the depth of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension;(3) both the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge can predict readingcomprehension to a significant extent, with the latter as a more powerful predictor; (4)since the depth of vocabulary knowledge can make a significant contribution to inferentialsuccess and make up for an inadequate vocabulary size in the process of L2 reading, itshould be highlighted in L2 vocabulary teaching and learning.Based on the results of the present study, it is revealed that vocabulary learning ismuch more than a simple matter of recognizing and memorizing the superficial meaning.Learners must master in-depth vocabulary knowledge of individual words in variousaspects. To improve reading comprehension, at least two components of the depth ofvocabulary knowledge need much more attention. In addition to the primary meanings ofwords, word part and grammatical function are also important elements that should beintroduced in the classroom. Generally speaking, the findings of the present study mayhave some implications for EFL (English as a Foreign Language) vocabulary teaching andlearning in China.