The Influence Of Syntactic Knowledge,Vocabulary Breadth And Vocabulary Depth On Reading Comprehension

Based on the componential approach to modeling reading, the present study intended to investigate the influence of syntactic knowledge, vocabulary breadth and vocabulary depth on reading comprehension of Chinese EFL students with different English proficiency levels as well as their relative predictive power. Two groups of Chinese university students were recruited in the experiment, with thirty-five English majors and another thirty-five non-English majors. In order to assess the subjects’breadth and depth of their vocabulary knowledge, Vocabulary Level Test and Word Associates Format were conducted in the study. Also, MCQ-based grammatical test and passage reading test were administered as measures of their syntactic knowledge performance and reading comprehension performance respectively. On one hand, vocabulary breadth and depth as well as syntactic knowledge were significantly correlated with reading comprehension in the group of subjects with lower-level proficiency, while in higher-level proficiency group only vocabulary depth and syntactic knowledge were correlated with it. On the other hand, no significant correlation was found between vocabulary breadth and depth regardless of the participants’proficiency levels. Besides, vocabulary breadth was significantly correlated with syntactic knowledge in low level group while vocabulary depth was significantly correlated with syntactic knowledge in high level group. Further stepwise regression analyzes indicated that syntactic knowledge was the best predictor of L2reading comprehension for higher-level proficiency learners while vocabulary breadth best predicted L2reading comprehension for lower-level groups, but syntactic knowledge was still a significant contributor in this group. The findings of the study highlighted the importance of syntactic knowledge and provide implications for reading instruction.