Lexical inferencing in EFL reading coursebooks: Some implications of research

Abstract

Lexical inferencing is frequently recommended by writers on second language pedagogy, researchers and authors of reading coursebooks. Various types of cue— interlingual, morphological, grammatical, semantic and rhetorical, for example— which aid readers to infer the meaning of unknown words have been described. On the other hand, various weakensses in the lexical inferencing procedures of learners have also been identified. Twenty reading coursebooks aimed at a general EFL audience were examined to determine whether the design of training in this strategy in coursebooks reflected research findings. It was found that, in general, little concrete advice was given on how to exploit cues derived from morphology, cognates, and semantic and rhetorical relationships. In addition, with one or two exceptions, little relationship was detected between the procedures proposed and the tasks designed to practise those procedures. It was, therefore, concluded that reading coursebooks do no systematically incorporate insights derived from research into training designed to develop lexical inferencing strategies.