Premium
Vocabulary and Grammar Knowledge in Second Language Reading Comprehension: A Structural Equation Modeling Study
Author(s) -
ZHANG DONGBO
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the modern language journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.486
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1540-4781
pISSN - 0026-7902
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4781.2012.01398.x
Subject(s) - vocabulary , grammaticality , grammar , reading comprehension , computer science , linguistics , structural equation modeling , natural language processing , test (biology) , comprehension , reading (process) , inference , vocabulary development , task (project management) , psychology , artificial intelligence , paleontology , philosophy , machine learning , biology , programming language , management , economics
Using structural equation modeling analysis, this study examined the contribution of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge to second language reading comprehension among 190 advanced Chinese English as a foreign language learners. Vocabulary knowledge was measured in both breadth (Vocabulary Levels Test) and depth (Word Associates Test); grammatical measures focused on learners' implicit (timed grammaticality judgment task), as well as explicit knowledge (grammatical error correction task); reading comprehension had three indicators, namely, co‐reference, textual inference, and gist. Vocabulary knowledge related significantly to reading comprehension; grammatical knowledge showed a weak contribution to reading comprehension after controlling for the effect of vocabulary knowledge. In addition, learners' implicit knowledge of grammar had a stronger relationship to reading comprehension than explicit knowledge, over and above the effect of vocabulary size.