Abstract
The study probed into the relationship between word knowledge and academic literacy skills in college-level English as a second language (ESL) learners. Morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge were included in the word knowledge measures. In addition, reading comprehension and academic writing were the outcome variables. Using the data from 118 ESL students in Hong Kong, we found that both morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge contributed to academic literacy skills. More important, direct and indirect effects of word knowledge on academic literacy skills were tested to provide insight into how two facets of word knowledge interact in shaping academic literacy acquisition. The results demonstrated that vocabulary knowledge mediated the relationship between morphological awareness and academic literacy skills. The study suggests that morphological sensitivity could enhance word meaning extraction and local meaning construction, which subsequently facilitates academic literacy skills.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Effects of two forms of concept mapping on L2 reading comprehension and strategy awareness
- Exploring the effects of school context on Chinese students’ use of language learning strategies in English learning
- Language choice, identity and social distance: Ethnic minority students in Vietnam
- Linguistic precariat: Judith Butler’s ‘rethinking vulnerability and resistance’ as a useful perspective for applied linguistics
- Multi-modal language input: A learned superadditive effect
- Word knowledge in academic literacy skills among collegiate ESL learners
- Integrating Linguistic Theory and Experimentation in L2 Acquisition: Learning of Spanish Differential Object Marking by Portuguese and English speakers
- Pinpointing the role of the native language in L2 learning: Acquisition of spatial prepositions in English by Russian and Turkish native speakers
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Effects of two forms of concept mapping on L2 reading comprehension and strategy awareness
- Exploring the effects of school context on Chinese students’ use of language learning strategies in English learning
- Language choice, identity and social distance: Ethnic minority students in Vietnam
- Linguistic precariat: Judith Butler’s ‘rethinking vulnerability and resistance’ as a useful perspective for applied linguistics
- Multi-modal language input: A learned superadditive effect
- Word knowledge in academic literacy skills among collegiate ESL learners
- Integrating Linguistic Theory and Experimentation in L2 Acquisition: Learning of Spanish Differential Object Marking by Portuguese and English speakers
- Pinpointing the role of the native language in L2 learning: Acquisition of spatial prepositions in English by Russian and Turkish native speakers
- Rethinking perceptions of fluency