Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary Knowledge: Assessing their Roles in Reading Comprehension of High-School EFL Learners in the UAE

Simple item page
dc.Location2012 LB 1525.34 E46
dc.SupervisorDr Amanda Howard
dc.contributor.authorElmasry, Hamdy Ibrahim
dc.date.accessioned2013-11-14T11:32:52Z
dc.date.available2013-11-14T11:32:52Z
dc.date.issued2012-11
dc.descriptionDISSERTATION WITH DISTINCTIONen_US
dc.description.abstractThe present study examined the relationship between breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. It was conducted through two phases, quantitative and qualitative. The first quantitative phase of the study, which included 93 high school participants, investigated the degree of correlations between two aspects of vocabulary knowledge, breadth (vocabulary size) and depth, and reading comprehension. Furthermore, it investigated whether breadth or depth was a stronger predictor of learners’ reading comprehension. It adopted three language tests: two vocabulary tests and a reading comprehension test. The second qualitative phase, which involved four subjects (a subsample of the first phase), explored how these subjects used their vocabulary depth to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words in a written text. To achieve this purpose, semi-structured interviews were employed as a method of data collection. The study has empirically shown several findings. Moderate positive intercorrelations among the scores on the three language tests were obtained. Breadth proved to be a more powerful predictor of reading comprehension scores than depth. Students with greater depth of vocabulary knowledge were more successful in inferring the meaning of unknown words while reading than those with less depth. A positive association was found between students’ vocabulary depth and their lexical inferencing ability. These results confirm the importance and the value of developing students’ breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge in EFL classrooms.en_US
dc.identifier.other100061
dc.identifier.urihttp://bspace.buid.ac.ae/handle/1234/396
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherThe British University in Dubai (BUiD)en_US
dc.subjectvocabulary knowledge
dc.subjectEFL learners
dc.subjectUnited Arab Emirates (UAE)
dc.subjectreading comprehension
dc.titleDepth and Breadth of Vocabulary Knowledge: Assessing their Roles in Reading Comprehension of High-School EFL Learners in the UAEen_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Thumbnail Image
Name:
100061-Abstract and Table of Contents.pdf
Size:
500.21 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
Thumbnail Image
Name:
100061-dissertation.pdf
Size:
961.27 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
Dissertations for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)