Exploring the effect of lexical inferencing and dictionary consultation on undergraduate EFL students' vocabulary acquisition

PLoS One. 2020 Jul 30;15(7):e0236798. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236798. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

This study compares how lexical inferencing and dictionary consultation affect L2 vocabulary acquisition. Sixty-one L1 Arabic undergraduates majoring in English language read target words in semi-authentic English reading materials and were either asked to guess their meaning or look it up in a dictionary. A pre- and delayed post-test measured participants' knowledge of target words and overall vocabulary size. The results show a significant and comparable learning effect for both vocabulary learning strategies (VLS), with a higher pre-test vocabulary size related to a larger learning effect for both VLS. In addition, the better participants were at guessing correctly, the better they learned words through inferencing. The results suggest that both VLS are equally effective for our learner group and that learners' overall vocabulary size influences the amount of learning that occurs when using these VLS.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Dictionaries as Topic
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Language Tests
  • Language*
  • Learning / physiology*
  • Male
  • Multilingualism*
  • Reading*
  • Students / psychology*
  • Vocabulary*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

The first author was funded by King Abdulaziz University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The authors also acknowledge the financial support by the University of Graz. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.