A Study On The Relationship Between Non-English Majors’Breadth And Depth Of Vocabulary Knowledge And Reading Subskills

Vocabulary knowledge plays a dominant role in language developing processand reading ability is an important skill in language learning. Many researchers, nomatter at home or abroad, have done a number of studies on the relationship betweenvocabulary knowledge (breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge) and readingability. Reading ability is composed of many subskills, such as stated details, mainidea and inference (Qian,1990). However, few studies are concerned with readingsubskills. On that account, this empirical study aims to explore the relationshipbetween vocabulary knowledge and reading subskills of non-English majorsophomores from different departments of a university in the north of China asparticipants. The participants in this study all took three kinds of paper-and-penciltests: breadth of vocabulary knowledge in the format of VLT (Vocabulary Level Test)designed by Nation (1990); depth of vocabulary knowledge containing two parts(synonyms and collocations) in the format of WAT (Word Association Test) designedby Read (2010), and reading proficiency test selected from the reading part in TEM-4of2011, in which questions are divided into three subskills. In addition, six of theparticipants were asked to do an oral report in the format of think-aloud protocolwhich served as a back-up for data analysis.The results of the study show that:(1) there are significantly correlationsbetween breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge and reading subskills, but thecorrelation coefficients are not always high;(2) EFL learners with different levels ofbreadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge perform differently in two readingsubskills, that is, stated details and main idea;(3) both breadth and depth ofvocabulary knowledge contribute to predicting each reading subskill but the formerwas a more powerful predictor than the latter.The findings from this empirical study not only show the important role ofvocabulary knowledge in reading subskills, but also inspire language learners to payattention to both breadth of vocabulary knowledge (word meaning) and depth ofvocabulary knowledge (synonyms and collocations) in language learning process. Besides, the oral report also show that though vocabulary knowledge plays animportant role in reading subskills, it is not enough to improve one’s reading ability toa large extent only by enlarging one’s vocabulary knowledge. Some other factorsshould also be taken into consideration, such as language environment, backgroundinformation, reading strategies, material familiarity, psychological factor, and so on.