The correlation and prediction of depth of vocabulary knowledge to academic reading comprehension of EFL tertiary learners

Abstract

An in-depth investigation of vocabulary depth knowledge by lexical researchers plays a prominent role in language learning and teaching. The objectives of the present study were to investigate the extent of relationship and prediction of the three constitutes of vocabulary depth knowledge (i.e., analytic relations, morphological knowledge, and depth of vocabulary knowledge test which was represented by paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations) to reading comprehension. Therefore, this study employed standard multiple regression analysis under quantitative approach amongst undergraduate EFL learners. The results of the study show that a significant and strong correlation existed between adapted analytic relations aspect of vocabulary depth knowledge and reading comprehension, and also analytic relations made statistically the most significant unique prediction (which had the largest impact on) to reading comprehension. The study concludes that there are significant correlations and prediction of three components of vocabulary depth knowledge to reading comprehension. The inclusion of analytic relations with paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations and morphological knowledge, which represented vocabulary depth knowledge, has added to the body of lexical knowledge.