This study investigated the effects of processing three types of texts, namely expository texts, narrative texts, and a combination of both known as twin texts, on incidental vocabulary acquisition and retention in L2 learners. College freshmen (N = 109), who were lower to upper intermediate learners of English, were assigned into a control group and three experimental groups representing different reading conditions. Over a period of seven weeks, the experimental groups engaged in two reading sessions to read their assigned texts accompanied by output tasks and input enhancement. The participants’ receptive and productive vocabulary gains were measured with an immediate posttest and a delayed posttest to assess retention. Results revealed significant impacts of text genres on L2 incidental vocabulary learning and retention. Processing twin texts and expository texts yielded significantly greater vocabulary gains than processing narrative texts alone. These effects might be due to different processing mechanisms required for texts structured in distinct ways. Expository texts are informative and explanatory in nature, providing explicit and contextually rich information for word comprehension and retention.

This paper examined factors affecting Korean EFL learners’ word association types in their L2 mental lexicon. Specifically, vocabulary size of the learners was examined to see if it had any significant relationship with word association types. To this end, experiment procedures that included vocabulary size test and the lexical decision task as well as the word association task were conducted on 40 Korean EFL learners. Reaction time and accuracy of responding to word associations in the lexical decision task were measured. Subsequently, a correlation analysis was conducted with their vocabulary size. Additionally, learners’ word association types were analyzed based on the results of word association task. The results showed that Korean EFL learners’ vocabulary size had significant correlations with their accuracy in identifying syntagmatic and paradigmatic associations, but not in the phonological association. However, their accuracy was not correlated with reaction times. The results indicate that L2 learners’ mental lexicon is partially dependent on their vocabulary size of the target language, and it is variable depending on word association types.

This study examines the claim that vocabulary learning and retention are dependent on a task's involvement load (i.e., need, search, evaluation), as proposed by Hulstijn and Laufer (2001a). The study aims at comparing the effects of task types and task involvement load on vocabulary retention for Korean EFL university students. More specifically, this study was designed to test whether differential levels of task involvement loads lead to equally effective results to vocabulary retention when the total involvement index being equal. Three types of productive word-focused tasks (gap-filling using a dictionary, writing original sentences, and gap-filling through word transformation) were used to examine the interplay of involvement index and task types. The result indicated that there were significant main effects of task types, test types, and proficiency levels. The results also indicated that there were significant interaction effects of task types on the retention tests, proficiency levels on the retention tests, and task types×proficiency levels on the retentions. The pedagogical implications and further research directions are discussed.

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.

The present study examined the comparative role of vocabulary and grammar in different test measures of L2 reading comprehension. A total of 83 students were asked to take three reading tests with a different technique each (multiple-choice, cloze, and recall), a vocabulary test, and a grammar test, and to respond to a questionnaire. The findings were as follows: 1) learners’ reading performance differed across the three reading test measures, and the two language variables exerted different influences in L2 reading as measured by the cloze test technique; and 2) concerning the comparative contribution of the two language variables to L2 reading comprehension according to learners’ L2 proficiency, the contribution was significant exclusively in the recall test, and it varied depending upon their L2 proficiency. This research demonstrates the importance of taking into account the type of test techniques in studies of the relative role of vocabulary and grammar knowledge in L2 reading.

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.

The present study investigated which facets of perceived self-efficacy (PSE) in L2 reading are significantly related to L2 reading proficiency (L2RP), which type of linguistic knowledge feeds into PSE, and how they are related to L2RP when considered together. Participants (n = 95) were college students from two universities in Seoul. Four subcomponents of PSE were identified for investigation: text-based PSE, general PSE, PSE in linguistic knowledge, and PSE in authentic reading. The result of stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that the general PSE whose items reflect dimensions of social comparative influences and perceived controllability over environments was the only significant predictor of L2RP (R2 = 17.7%). For the relationships between linguistic knowledge and PSE, vocabulary knowledge (VK) was shown to be the only significant predictor of PSE when considered together with grammar knowledge (GK) and L2RP (R2 = 22.9%), while VK and GK were significant predictors of L2RP (R2 = 69.4%). PSE was not found to make an independent contribution to L2RP when considered with linguistic knowledge.

This study attempted to investigate the relative contribution of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge to second language reading comprehension ability. With 44 EFL adult learners whose language proficiency fell within the low-intermediate level, three different measures were conducted: vocabulary and grammatical knowledge were measured by researcher-developed tests and L2 reading comprehension was measured using the reading section of the TOEIC test. In order to examine the two predicting variables (i.e., vocabulary and grammatical knowledge) a multiple regression analysis was performed. The study found that both grammatical and vocabulary knowledge related significantly to L2 reading comprehension. Additionally, vocabulary knowledge showed a slightly stronger contribution to reading comprehension than syntactic knowledge. These findings suggest that it is equally important for lower level readers to understand vocabulary as well as basic syntactic rules and structures when it comes to EFL reading comprehension.

This paper explored the relative roles of grammar and vocabulary in different L2 reading tasks, i.e., scanning and receptive reading. The participants involved 14 advanced and 14 intermediate adult ESL learners with diverse L1 backgrounds, enrolling at a university-affiliated language institute. For the scanning task, the participants were asked to read two English articles and highlight each occurrence of a key word given at the outset for each article. For the receptive reading task, the participants read another two articles for comprehending and remembering the content and to answer 7 multiple-choice comprehension questions for each article. Additionally, the participants completed a 35-item multiple-choice grammar test and a 20-item multiple-choice vocabulary test. The results of a multiple regression analysis revealed that relative importance of vocabulary and grammar varied depending on the types L2 reading task.