This study investigates how working memory (WM) capacity and L2 linguistic knowledge affect L2 literal and inferential reading comprehension, considering the presence or absence of background knowledge. Eighty upper-intermediate to advanced adult English learners participated, completing tasks to assess WM capacity, background knowledge, L2…

This study aimed to explore the role of inference making in the relation between vocabulary knowledge (breadth and depth) and reading comprehension for 487 ninth-grade Chinese EFL students who were categorized as either struggling or adequate. Path analysis was used to examine both direct and mediated effects. The results indicated a statistically…

This study explored the role of word knowledge dimensions in second language (L2) word-meaning inference. College-level L2 learners (N = 121) participated in this study and completed a series of word knowledge tests including vocabulary size, word associates, morpheme-form knowledge, morpheme-meaning knowledge, morpheme discrimination, and…

Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago (UTESA) is a university considered as one of the highest ranking universities in the Dominican Republic, it is one of the few to be recognized by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology as an autonomous university for its constant research and updating. This university offers to college students…

Inferring unknown word meanings by using contextual clues is a common strategy employed by EFL learners during reading. This study aims to (a) investigate the effect of familiarity on lexical inferences in EFL reading; (b) examine inference efficiency among EFL readers with different levels of vocabulary knowledge and reading proficiency; and (c)…

Within the framework of foreign language teaching and learning, reading strategies, depth of vocabulary knowledge and text inferencing skills have not been researched extensively. This study tries to fill this gap by analyzing the effects of reading strategies used by Turkish EFL learners and their depth of vocabulary knowledge on their text…

This study investigated Turkish as foreign language learners' awareness and use of Turkish derivational affixes as a knowledge source in guessing the meanings of unknown words in written contexts. In addition, this study also examined the type of knowledge sources used in guessing the meaning of the unknown words. The study was conducted with the…

In theoretical cognitive science, there is a tension between highly structured models whose parameters have a direct psychological interpretation and highly complex, general-purpose models whose parameters and representations are difficult to interpret. The former typically provide more insight into cognition but the latter often perform better.…

There is a general consensus among second-language (L2) researchers today that lexical inferencing (LIF) is among the most common techniques that L2 learners use to generate meaning for unknown words they encounter in context. Indeed, claims about the salience and pervasiveness of LIF for L2 learners rely heavily upon data obtained via concurrent…

This study aims to examine a) whether vocabulary knowledge, captured in the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), is related to the performance on the five types of reading comprehension items tested in TOEFL, i.e., Guessing Vocabulary, Main Idea, Inference, Reference, and Stated Detail; and b) whether EFL learners with different levels of vocabulary…

This paper presents some of the findings of a study investigating young people's attitudes towards Europe and the European Union and their self-reported learning about European citizenship in Ireland. The paper considers adolescents' attitudes and motivations for language learning in light of recent literature arguing for the role of modern…

A sample of junior students majoring in translation was enrolled in an Arabization course. The students received direct instruction in word formation processes in English and Arabic such as compounding, derivation, back formation, conversion, blends, clipping, acronyms and neologisms. Focus was on similarities and differences between English and…

This study investigated the effects of culture-specific background knowledge and inferences upon second-language readers' comprehension of text. Ten Korean adult second-language readers were asked to think aloud as they read a short story from another culture and then answer a detailed set of postreading questions. (20 references) (VWL)

Tested how domain-related knowledge, syntactic complexity, and reading topic influence inference generation in the written recalls of English-speaking participants after they read Spanish historical texts. Three types of inferences were examined: within-text inferences, elaborative inferences, and incorrect inferences. (Author/JL)

This study examines the use of strategies and knowledge sources in L2 lexical inferencing and their relationship with inferential success. Data consist of introspective and retrospective think-aloud protocols of 21 intermediate ESL learners who attempted to infer new word meanings from context. Analysis reveals that (a) overall, the rate of…