The present study aims to investigate the direct and indirect contributions of Korean EFL college students’ L2 receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge to their L2 writing performances by using a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis with a goal to explore the pathways of vocabulary knowledge to writing. Data from 178 students were collected through tests of receptive and productive vocabulary breadth and depth, a writing test and a reading test. In testing a hypothesized model on the roles of receptive and productive vocabulary in writing, the results of the SEM analysis reveal the direct role of productive vocabulary in writing. The indirect role of receptive vocabulary on writing was observed through the mediating role of productive vocabulary or reading ability due to the direct contribution of receptive vocabulary to both productive vocabulary and reading and that of productive vocabulary and reading to writing. Findings from the study shed light on the relations of L2 receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge with L2 writing abilities, suggesting potential benefits of both receptive and productive vocabulary learning for L2 writing.

Although reading is part and parcel for the development of L2 literacy skills, such as in reading and writing, the skill has been practiced more often for grammar instruction and literal translation in EFL contexts. While realizing there is less focus on the development of L2 skills through extensive reading (ER) in EFL university contexts,the purpose of the present study was to explore the outcome of an in-class ER approach in English university classrooms. With 249 students, the study reports on the implementation of a university level ER class and the outcome for L2 development via the measures of L2 reading speed, L2 speed reading comprehension, and L2 lexical writing ability. Results indicated positive outcomes for the development of students’ L2reading ability, productive retrieval of academic words and lexical variety. The outcome of the ER program validates the effort and time expended on such programs when graded readers are utilized at matching student Lexile levels.

The study investigated the effects of text, task, and L2 reading ability on Korean college students’ English reading strategy use. The participants performed Word Translation, Theme Summarization, and Question Generation tasks while reading either narrative or expository passages. The strategy use was examined through a questionnaire and thinkaloud protocols. When investigated by the questionnaire, the students’ strategy use patterns were not very different between the two text type groups and between the two L2 reading ability groups. The task type seemed to affect the strategy use to some degree, but the difference was not extensive. Overall, a few particular strategies were used very often regardless of the text type, the task type and L2 reading ability. The results of the verbal protocols suggested that the task types affected the strategy use to some degree, but the influence was limited as was shown in the results of the questionnaire. Based on the findings of the study, pedagogical implications were presented.