Depth Versus Breadth of Vocabulary Knowledge: Assessing their Roles in Iranian Intermediate EFL Students' Lexical Inferencing Success Through Reading

Abstract

This study was an attempt to investigate the impact of depth versus breadth of vocabulary knowledge on lexical inferencing success through reading of Iranian Intermediate EFL learners. In the first step, a CELT test was administered and 40 participants were selected for the study. In the second step, subjects were tested on two tests of depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge, and were required to infer the meanings of 10 non-sense words. The results indicated that L2 lexical inferencing success on one hand, and depth and breadth of word knowledge on the other hand, were positively correlated (r = 0.91). The results of a multiple regression analysis also revealed that depth of word knowledge was a stronger predictor of lexical inferencing success through reading.