An Empirical Study on the Role of Vocabulary Knowledge in EFL Listening Comprehension

Suping Wang

doi:10.17507/tpls.0505.14

INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEPTH AND BREADTH OF VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE AND LISTENING COMPREHENSION ACROSS DIFFERENT PROFICIENCY LEVELS AMONG IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS

International Journal for 21st Century Education ◽

10.21071/ij21ce.v3ispecial.5708 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 3 (Special) ◽

pp. 63

Author(s):

SASAN BALEGHIZADEH ◽

PAYAM PAYAM

Keyword(s):

Listening Comprehension ◽

English Language ◽

Vocabulary Knowledge ◽

Ability Group ◽

Language And Literature ◽

Determining Factors ◽

Listening Proficiency ◽

Listening Ability ◽

The Relationship

This study was an attempt to investigate the particular role of learners’ depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge in their listening comprehension. Moreover, it also sought to find out whether there is any difference between high and low listening proficiency groups in performance on depth and breadth dimensions of vocabulary knowledge. To this end, a total of 117 junior university students majoring in English language and literature participated in the study. In order to assess the learners’ listening comprehension, the listening section of a paper-based version of the TOEFL was administered. Their depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge were measured through performance on Word Associate Test and Vocabulary Levels Test, respectively. The results of data analysis indicated that both depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge are determining factors in successful listening comprehension. However, it was found out that breadth or size of vocabulary knowledge provides a more significant contribution than depth to listening comprehension. Furthermore, the results of the study indicated that depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge are not significant predictors of listening comprehension in the low listening ability group.

Download Full-text

Factors that influence comprehension of connectives among language minority children from Spanish-speaking backgrounds

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716408080260 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 603-625 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

AMY C. CROSSON ◽

NONIE K. LESAUX ◽

MARIA MARTINIELLO

Keyword(s):

Oral Language ◽

Listening Comprehension ◽

Word Reading ◽

Critical Role ◽

Language Minority ◽

Vocabulary Knowledge ◽

Minority Children ◽

Text Cohesion ◽

Language Competencies

ABSTRACTThis study explores factors influencing the degree to which language minority (LM) children from Spanish-dominant homes understand how connectives, such as in contrast and because, signal relationships between text propositions. Standardized tasks of vocabulary, listening comprehension, word reading, and a researcher-designed text cohesion task were administered to 90 fourth-grade LM students. Understanding of connectives was influenced by vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension. The degree of challenge that specific connectives posed to LM students was predicted by the difficulty that connectives presented as vocabulary items and also by the type of semantic relationship between clauses they signaled. The findings point to factors that may present sources of difficulty underlying reading comprehension, in particular the critical role of oral language competencies.

Download Full-text

The Role of Morphological Awareness in Listening Comprehension of Chinese Blind Children: The Mediation of Vocabulary Knowledge

Psychology Research and Behavior Management ◽

10.2147/prbm.s332393 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol Volume 14 ◽

pp. 1823-1832

Author(s):

Ruibo Xie ◽

Yue Xia ◽

Xinchun Wu ◽

Ying Zhao ◽

Hongjun Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Listening Comprehension ◽

Morphological Awareness ◽

Vocabulary Knowledge ◽

Blind Children

Download Full-text

Pinyin Spelling Promotes Reading Abilities of Adolescents Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language: Evidence From Mediation Models

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2020.596680 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Huimin Xiao ◽

Caihua Xu ◽

Hetty Rusamy

Keyword(s):

Reading Comprehension ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Listening Comprehension ◽

Vocabulary Knowledge ◽

Mediating Effect ◽

Phonological Representations ◽

Reading Abilities ◽

Two Measures

Pinyin is a phonological encoding system used to spell modern Chinese Mandarin due to the phonological opacity of Chinese characters. The present study examined the role of Pinyin spelling in the reading abilities of adolescents learning Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). A total of 158 Indonesian senior primary students were tested on Pinyin spelling, character production, listening comprehension, depth of vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension. Pinyin spelling skills were assessed by two measures, Pinyin Dictation (sentence dictation in Pinyin) and Pinyin Tagging (Pinyin writing for characters). Path analysis revealed that even after controlling for the effect of character production, Pinyin dictation performance influenced reading comprehension through the mediating effect of listening comprehension and the depth of vocabulary knowledge, and Pinyin tagging performance also influenced reading comprehension through the mediating effect of the depth of vocabulary knowledge. The results highlight the importance of Pinyin skills for Chinese reading abilities of CFL learners. As a reliable and explicit indicator of specifying Chinese phonological representations and processing, Pinyin spelling has a long-term and multifaceted influence on higher-level CFL abilities.

Download Full-text