The present study was designed to examine the effects of a variety of factors on English vocabulary achievement. To this end, a total of seven hypotheses were posed in light of previous research on vocabulary learning. To test these hypotheses, an SEM procedure was performed for a sample of 368 Korean university students. The effects of gender and academic specialization on English vocabulary achievement were also examined through multi-sample analyses. Results of the present study demonstrate that Korean university EFL learners’ English vocabulary achievement was a direct function of motivation and vocabulary strategy. The effects of confidence, learner beliefs, and vocabulary learning methods, however, were found to be only indirectly connected to vocabulary achievement through motivation and strategy use. The results of multisample analyses for learners of different gender and academic major groups identified a total of four path coefficients whose effects functioned differentially across different learner groups. Implications of the present are also discussed.

This experimental study investigated whether language anxiety differentially influences the extent to which two corrective feedback (CF) techniques of recasts and prompts affect the L2 learning process and its outcome. Four experimental groups were formed according to their anxiety level and the type of CF received during question recall tasks they completed: the high-anxiety recasts-receiving group, the low-anxiety recasts-receiving group, the high-anxiety prompts-receiving group, and the low-anxiety prompts-receiving group. Two high- and low-anxiety control groups were additionally formed, who did not engage in the tasks. Learners’ anxiety level was judged based on their responses to a language anxiety questionnaire. CF efficacy in processing L2 was measured by examining the extent to which CF induced modified output and repair. Learners’ L2 knowledge was assessed at explicit and implicit levels on pretests, immediate posttests, and delayed posttests. Results revealed that language anxiety had no impact on prompts’ efficacy but displayed some influence on recasts’ efficacy. Recasts were more effective in promoting repair and L2 explicit knowledge for low-anxiety learners. It was also found that the differential effects of learner language anxiety were closely related to the level of anxiety aroused by the way the tasks were implemented. The finding highlights the significance of considering both learner language anxiety and task anxiety in providing CF.