The relationship between depth of vocabulary knowledge and Iranian EFL learners＇ lexical inferencing strategy use and success

This study was an attempt to examine the relationship between Iranian EFL （English as Foreign Language） learners＇ depth of vocabulary knowledge and their lexical inferencing strategy use and success. The participants in this study were 32 intermediate senior students of Shiraz Azad University majoring in English translation. The Word Associates Test （WAT） （Read, 1993） was used to measure their depth of vocabulary knowledge and lexical inferencing strategy questionnaire which was part of Schmitt （1997）, vocabulary learning strategies as well as a reading passage （Haastrup, 1999）, cited in Nassaji （2004）, were used to determine their lexical inferencing strategy use and success. Results indicate that： （1） Those who have stronger depth of vocabulary knowledge use certain strategies more frequently than those who have weaker depth of vocabulary knowledge; （2） The students with stronger depth of vocabulary knowledge make more effective use of certain types of lexical inferencing strategies. These findings support the importance of depth dimension of vocabulary knowledge and the role it plays in guessing the meaning of unknown words.

An Investigation of Relationships between Knowledge Sources and Success in L2 Lexical Inferencing by Chinese University Students

This research aims to investigate(1)the knowledge sources applied by foreign language students when they encounter unknown words in written text;(2)the correct rate of university-level Chinese students’L2 lexical inferencing and(3)the relation⁃ship between the knowledge sources and success of lexical inferencing.Questionnaire,group thinking-aloud protocols and retro⁃spective report were combined in use to examine university-level students’lexical inferencing procedures.In this study,twenty sophomore students in university were given a 330-word reading passage with 10 test items and asked to verbalize their thoughts about their inferencing.General findings of this study are(1)a variety of knowledge sources were applied by informants during this inferencing procedure,among which contextual cues were used more frequently than the other two categories of cues;(2)the correct rate of the L2 lexical inferencing is not high and(3)there is no specific relationship between knowledge sources and success of lexi⁃cal inferencing,as the results showed that different participants could achieve the same inferencing based on using different types of knowledge sources.