Developing Lexical Competence Through Literature: A Study of Intermediate Students of Pakistan

Mamuna Ghani,Muhammad Din

doi:10.5539/ijel.v8n4p164

Abstract

This study brings to light the fact how much teaching English through literature renders any pay off in developing and honing the EFL/ESL learners’ lexical competence. This study strives to investigate the role of literature in developing the ESL/EFL learners’ lexical competence, find out the ESL/EFL learners’ attitude towards teaching lexical competence through literature, know the lexical competence level of the ESL learners, examine ESL/EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge and get insight into the difference between the ESL/EFL learners’ receptive and productive knowledge of vocabulary. In the Pakistani context, literature seems to be inadequate language teaching tool at HSSC level. To achieve the set objectives, the researcher went for the quantitative research methodology. So, a questionnaire comprising of 15 items encompassing the different aspects of vocabulary was designed to collect data from 600 subjects (male/female) of intermediate level. The researcher has also conducted “Vocabulary Level Test” and “Word Associate Test” as achievement tests. The collected data were analyzed through software package (SPSS XX). The findings of this study explicitly reveal that the EFL learners remain unable to develop lexical competence when they are taught English through literature. This study recommends that the teaching of English should be application oriented and task-based strategies and activities should be resorted to by the EL educators.

Highlights

Lexical competence is a part of linguistic competence rather more precisely a part of semantic competence (Marconi, 1997)
This study recommends that the teaching of English should be application oriented and task-based strategies and activities should be resorted to by the EL educators
The present study demonstrates that 80% subjects of this study claim that the teaching of English through literature motivates the EFL learners to use dictionary to look up the meaning of the unknown lexical items of their textbooks

Summary

Introduction

Lexical competence is a part of linguistic competence rather more precisely a part of semantic competence (Marconi, 1997). Lexical competence means the knowledge of the vocabulary of a language and the ability to use it (The Council of Europe, 2001). Thirmumalai (2002) claims that lexical competence means knowing the meanings of the words but it means having the knowledge the way these words are used in their sociolinguistic, linguistic and cultural context. The lack of lexical competence is a major obstacle for the learners in learning language skills like listening, speaking, reading and writing (Malek, 2000). The reason behind this lies in the approach adopted by the FL teachers who do not give due importance to those activities which can be helpful in honing the ESL learners’ lexical competence

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion