scholarly journals Lexical Inferencing in Newspaper Columns: An Introspective Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 367
Author(s):  
Awais Shafiq ◽  
Abdullah Shafiq ◽  
Adnan Tahir ◽  
Muhammad Akbar Sajid
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Syntactic Property ◽  
Lexical Inferencing ◽  
Text Length ◽  
Unknown Words ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
Knowledge Of Learners ◽  
Lower Group

The significance of vocabulary in second or foreign language cannot be denied. The study explores the knowledge sources used by ESL learners in generating the meanings of the unknown words found in the columns of a daily Dawn. The study also investigates the effect of text length and syntactic property of unknown words in the inferential behaviors of learners. The participants of the study were chosen randomly from BS English, Govt. Emerson College, Multan. The amended taxonomy of knowledge sources and clues given by Bengleil and Paribakht (2004) was used in the study. The inferences verbalized their thoughts while guessing the meanings of the unknown words. The higher group was more successful in their guessing than the lower group. The study also found out that text length and the syntactic property of an unknown word his impact on the process of lexical inferencing. The study recommends the strategy of lexical inferencing as it facilitates reading comprehension and enhances lexical knowledge of learners.

Reading Comprehension for ESL Students. Processes of Perceiving Texts

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-282
Author(s):  
Maria-Miruna Ciocoi-Pop
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Reading Proficiency ◽  
Second Language Reading ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Unknown Words ◽  
Second Language Reading Comprehension ◽  
Esl Learners

AbstractIn an ever-increasing competitive academic setting, university students are striving for proficiency in their skills of foreign languages. This paper aims to highlight the significance of reading comprehension for students of English as a second language. Reading comprehension is a cognitive process, in other words, reading a text means processing and decoding it. Reading proficiency is linked to numerous aspects, such as age, cognitive processes, abilities, knowledge of the foreign language, etc. It goes without saying that the experience of reading a text, be it literary or non-literary, is more enjoyable without the need to constantly look up unknown words. This brief study also tries to show whether there is a direct connection between finding contentment in reading and comprehending the texts itself. Since reading is a key-skill verified in all major language exams, it is crucial for the ESL class, and not only, to include reading comprehension processes. Like any other skill, reading comprehension can be trained, as long as it is perceived as a procedure which requires the student’s commitment. Reading comprehension is a mechanism of phrase and concept identification, as well as of decoding meanings. Thus, this paper tries to emphasize the implications of reading comprehension and of teaching reading comprehension methods in the overall linguistic knowledge of ESL learners.

scholarly journals The Effect of Lexical Inference Strategy Instruction on Saudi EFL learners’ Reading Comprehension

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arafat Hamouda ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Strategy Instruction ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Lexical Inferencing ◽  
Unknown Words ◽  
Inference Strategy

Lexical inference strategy plays an important role in increasing the level of reading comprehension of second or foreign language learners. Lexical inferencing as an efficient strategy to deal with unfamiliar words has attracted much attention in the comprehension literature. However, few studies on lexical inferencing have been conducted in an English as a foreign language (EFL) setting. To fill in the existing gap, the current study aimed at investigating the effect of lexical inferencing strategy instruction on Saudi EFL students’ reading comprehension. Additionally, it sought to identify the lexical inferencing strategies used by Saudi EFL learners while they were inferring unknown words in a text. Last, the current study attempted to find the relationship between lexical inference strategies and reading comprehension among Saudi EFL learners. Sixty students from the English department were selected based on their scores on the Oxford Placement Test, indicating that they were at intermediate levels of English proficiency. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: control and experimental (each consisting of 30 students). The participants in the control group received regular instruction, while the participants in the experimental group were treated using lexical inference strategies. The instruments used for collecting data were Oxford Placement Test, reading comprehension test, and think-aloud protocol. A pre-test and post-test were administered for control and experimental groups. The results of the independent samples t-test revealed that teaching inference skills had a significant effect on reading comprehension performance among EFL learners. The results of the paired t-tests showed that lexical inferencing instruction had a statistically significant effect on EFL learners’ reading comprehension development. The results of the Spearman correlation coefficient indicated that there was a significant relationship between lexical inferencing strategies and reading comprehension. The findings revealed the profound impact of lexical inferencing strategy instruction on the experimental group's performance in understanding reading text. Hence, it was concluded that lexical inferencing strategies were recommended to teach to improve the students’ reading comprehension performance.

Critical Thinking, Autonomy, and Lexical Knowledge of Iranian EFL Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 878
Author(s):  
Sajad Faramarzi ◽  
Atefeh Elekaei ◽  
Hossein Heidari Tabrizi
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Critical Thinking Ability ◽  
Thinking Ability ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Knowledge Of Learners ◽  
One Way Anova

The present study was conducted in order to identify the relationship among autonomy, critical thinking ability, and lexical knowledge of Iranian EFL learners. 114 male and female learners learning English as a foreign language participated in the present study. The obtained data was analyzed by using Pearson correlation coefficient and One-Way ANOVA. The results of the present study indicated that there was a significant positive relationship between autonomy and lexical knowledge of learners. Moreover, the results of One-Way ANOVA revealed that learners with high critical thinking ability level were the most autonomous learners. Furthermore, learners with high critical thinking ability had high lexical knowledge.

scholarly journals The Effect of Lexical Inference Strategy Instruction on Saudi EFL learners’ Reading Comprehension

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arafat Hamouda
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Strategy Instruction ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Lexical Inferencing ◽  
Unknown Words ◽  
Inference Strategy

Lexical inference strategy plays an important role in increasing the level of reading comprehension of second or foreign language learners. Lexical inferencing as an efficient strategy to deal with unfamiliar words has attracted much attention in the comprehension literature. However, few studies on lexical inferencing have been conducted in an English as a foreign language (EFL) setting. To fill in the existing gap, the current study aimed at investigating the effect of lexical inferencing strategy instruction on Saudi EFL students’ reading comprehension. Additionally, it sought to identify the lexical inferencing strategies used by Saudi EFL learners while they were inferring unknown words in a text. Last, the current study attempted to find the relationship between lexical inference strategies and reading comprehension among Saudi EFL learners. Sixty students from the English department were selected based on their scores on the Oxford Placement Test, indicating that they were at intermediate levels of English proficiency. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: control and experimental (each consisting of 30 students). The participants in the control group received regular instruction, while the participants in the experimental group were treated using lexical inference strategies. The instruments used for collecting data were Oxford Placement Test, reading comprehension test, and think-aloud protocol. A pre-test and post-test were administered for control and experimental groups. The results of the independent samples t-test revealed that teaching inference skills had a significant effect on reading comprehension performance among EFL learners. The results of the paired t-tests showed that lexical inferencing instruction had a statistically significant effect on EFL learners’ reading comprehension development. The results of the Spearman correlation coefficient indicated that there was a significant relationship between lexical inferencing strategies and reading comprehension. The findings revealed the profound impact of lexical inferencing strategy instruction on the experimental group's performance in understanding reading text. Hence, it was concluded that lexical inferencing strategies were recommended to teach to improve the students’ reading comprehension performance.

scholarly journals Demystifying Lexical Inferencing: The Role of Aspects of Vocabulary Knowledge

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
David D. Qian
Keyword(s):  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Canadian Universities ◽  
Adult Esl ◽  
Morphological Aspects ◽  
Lexical Inferencing ◽  
Unknown Words ◽  
Esl Learners

This empirical study examines how English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners use their vocabulary knowledge for inferring meanings of unknown words in reading comprehension. The data, collected through interviews with young adult ESL students in Canadian universities, indicate that: (a) semantic and morphological aspects of vocabulary knowledge play an important role in learners' comprehension processes; (b) a positive relationship exists between certain aspects of learners' vocabulary knowledge and their lexical inferencing ability; and (c) in processing the meaning of unknown words, all learners looked for cues to meaning, but learners with varying depths of vocabulary knowledge tended to focus on varying strategies.

scholarly journals The Effect of Lexical Inference Strategy Instruction on Saudi EFL learners’ Reading Comprehension

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arafat Hamouda
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Strategy Instruction ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Lexical Inferencing ◽  
Unknown Words ◽  
Inference Strategy

Lexical inference strategy plays an important role in increasing the level of reading comprehension of second or foreign language learners. Lexical inferencing as an efficient strategy to deal with unfamiliar words has attracted much attention in the comprehension literature. However, few studies on lexical inferencing have been conducted in an English as a foreign language (EFL) setting. To fill in the existing gap, the current study aimed at investigating the effect of lexical inferencing strategy instruction on Saudi EFL students’ reading comprehension. Additionally, it sought to identify the lexical inferencing strategies used by Saudi EFL learners while they were inferring unknown words in a text. Last, the current study attempted to find the relationship between lexical inference strategies and reading comprehension among Saudi EFL learners. Sixty students from the English department were selected based on their scores on the Oxford Placement Test, indicating that they were at intermediate levels of English proficiency. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: control and experimental (each consisting of 30 students). The participants in the control group received regular instruction, while the participants in the experimental group were treated using lexical inference strategies. The instruments used for collecting data were Oxford Placement Test, reading comprehension test, and think-aloud protocol. A pre-test and post-test were administered for control and experimental groups. The results of the independent samples t-test revealed that teaching inference skills had a significant effect on reading comprehension performance among EFL learners. The results of the paired t-tests showed that lexical inferencing instruction had a statistically significant effect on EFL learners’ reading comprehension development. The results of the Spearman correlation coefficient indicated that there was a significant relationship between lexical inferencing strategies and reading comprehension. The findings revealed the profound impact of lexical inferencing strategy instruction on the experimental group's performance in understanding reading text. Hence, it was concluded that lexical inferencing strategies were recommended to teach to improve the students’ reading comprehension performance.

scholarly journals Knowledge Sources for Constituent Parsing of German, a Morphologically Rich and Less-Configurational Language

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Fraser ◽  
Helmut Schmid ◽  
Richárd Farkas ◽  
Renjing Wang ◽  
Hinrich Schütze
Keyword(s):  
State Of The Art ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Context Free Grammar ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Context Free ◽  
Probabilistic Context

We study constituent parsing of German, a morphologically rich and less-configurational language. We use a probabilistic context-free grammar treebank grammar that has been adapted to the morphologically rich properties of German by markovization and special features added to its productions. We evaluate the impact of adding lexical knowledge. Then we examine both monolingual and bilingual approaches to parse reranking. Our reranking parser is the new state of the art in constituency parsing of the TIGER Treebank. We perform an analysis, concluding with lessons learned, which apply to parsing other morphologically rich and less-configurational languages.

Factoren Die Het Onthouden Van Vreemdtalige Woorden Beinvloeden

1981 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 227-245
Author(s):  
Caroline Schouten-Van Parreren
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
New Words ◽  
Psychological Conditions ◽  
Unknown Words ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Good Retention

In the recent literature on the methodology of foreign language teaching there is a growing consensus that new words should be presented in texts and not in vocabularies. The theoretical background of this assumption is explained through Van Parreren's theory of trace systems in memory. In particular it is argued that a good retention of new words requires that the traces of meaningfully related words be connected in many diffe-rent ways. Words in texts are already so connected (whereas words in vo-cabularies etc. are not). Moreover it is also possible to treat words in texts in a number of different ways. Although it is thus generally acknowledged that presenting words in texts is preferable, little is known about the nature of the psychological processes of comprehending and retaining new words when presented in texts. In order to gain insight into these processes a qualitative investigation was carried out. Texts in different foreign languages were read by adult subjects. These texts contained several words unknown to them. These words were tested twice: after a short and after a longer interval. While recalling the meaning of the words the subjects had to think aloud. These recall protocols were qualitatively analysed with respect to a number of questions. It was concluded that presenting words in texts offer many possibilities to ''embed" words in meaningful memory systems. However some linguistic and psychological conditions (concerning the text and the treatment of the text by the subjects) have to be taken into ac-count. In particular attention has to be paid only to a part of the unknown words, i.e. to the words in linguistically favourable positions. As a fa-vourable psychological condition for comprehension and retention diversity of treatment of the target words by the subjects seems to be required.

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