The Role of Dimensions of Lexical Repertoire in Reading Comprehension and Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

Abstract

The present study was carried out in order to investigate the relationship between dimensions of lexical repertoire, i.e., depth and breadth of lexical knowledge and Iranian EFL learners' incidental vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. The participants of the study were 30 English major students of MA. They were selected from 68 students, based on their performance on Nelson proficiency test. Word Association Test was used to measure students' depth of vocabulary knowledge, Vocabulary Levels Test was administered to examine students' breadth of vocabulary knowledge, MSRT reading test was used to measure their reading comprehension, and Vocabulary Knowledge Scale test was given to test their incidental vocabulary learning. The results of Pearson correlations indicated that there is a significant relationship between both depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge and EFL learners' incidental vocabulary learning as well as their reading comprehension.