vocabulary size

This study explored the relationship between EFL learners’ vocabulary size, lexical coverage of the text and reading comprehension texts (narrative & argumentative genres). To this end, 120 male and female out of 180 students studying at Talesh Azad University were selected based on their performance on the Nelson Proficiency Test. A Nelson reading proficiency test was also administered in order to check the homogeneity of the learners in their reading proficiency. After that, the researcher administered reading comprehension tests with narrative and argumentative genres in order to find the lexical coverage and vocabulary size for such reading tests. Learners' Vocabulary size was measured by the Levels Test, while their lexical coverage was measured by the newest version of Vocabulary Profile. In order to probe any significant relationship between the variables of the study, Pearson Correlationwas run. Results of the study showed that there was a strong relationship among vocabulary size, text coverage, and reading comprehension test at different genres.

Learning vocabulary has always been a major concern for language learners. The current research was implemented to find out the kinds of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (popular, somehow popular, and unpopular) in Schmitt’s new taxonomy (DET, SOC, COG, MEM, MET) used by English-major students. Fifty advanced English-major students at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman participated in this study. To this purpose, Schmitt’s Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire (VLSQ) and the last level of his Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) were used as the instruments. It was found that MEM was the most frequently used category and SOC the least frequently used one. Furthermore, COG, DET, and MET were the second, third and fourth categories respectively. The results of the study can be used by various people involved in language education including materials developers, language teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders.