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The role of text type and strategy use in L2 lexical inferencing

  • Ming-yueh Shen EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 18. Mai 2017
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching
Aus der Zeitschrift International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching Band 56 Heft 2

Abstract

This study aimed to determine as to whether or not the text type and strategy usage affect the EFL learners’ lexical inferencing performance. The participants were comprised of 87 first-year English majors at a technical university. Data were collected from (1) a lexical inferencing test with excerpts of narrative and expository texts, for which both multiple-choice and definition tasks were designed, respectively, and then (2) the responses from the learners’ self-reported strategy usage. The quantitative analyses demonstrated that the text types significantly affected the EFL learners’ lexical inferencing performance, in which the EFL learners performed better for the narrative excerpt than for the expository texts. However, significant coefficients between the strategy use and the lexical inferencing performance were not found in this study. The results further implied that the text structure and the lexical inferencing strategies should be explicitly taught to the EFL learners.

Keywords: lexical inferencing; text type; strategy use

Appendix I: Sample reading passages

READING EXERCISE 1: Study each of the passage, and choose the best answers to the question that follow.

#Expository Passage (Questions 1–5): Autism

Autism is a developmental disorder that is characterized by severe behavioral abnormalities across all primary areas of functioning. Its onset is often early; it generally makes itself known by the age of two and one-half. It is not a single disease entity but is instead a syndrome defined by patterns and characteristics of behavior; it, therefore, most likely has multiple etiologies rather than a single causative factor. … … ..

*Adopted from Longman Course for The TOEFL Test: iBT (Phillips 2010)

Part I: Definition, Description, & Response

Directions: (I) Define each of the words marked in the passage.

(II) Describe how you determine the meaning of the word.

(III) Answer the question by circling “helpful” or “not helpful”

DefinitionBrief description of the clues you usedIs the clue helpful?
1. primary1) helpful 2) not helpful
2. onset1) helpful 2) not helpful
3. syndrome1) helpful 2) not helpful
4. etiologies1) helpful 2) not helpful
5. with respect to1) helpful 2) not helpful

Part II: Study the passage, and choose the best answer to the questions that follow.

  1. The word primary in the passage could best be replaced by

    1. elementary

    2. main

    3. introductory

    4. primitive

  2. The word onset in the passage is closest in meaning to

    1. placement

    2. arrangement

    3. support

    4. beginning

  3. The word syndrome in the passage is closest in meaning to

    1. concurrent set of symptoms

    2. feeling of euphoria

    3. mental breakdown

    4. repetitive task

  4. The word etiologies in the passage is closest in meaning to

    1. symptoms

    2. patterns

    3. causes

    4. onsets

… … … .

# Narrative Passage (Questions 1–10)

Edna Ferber (1887–1968) was a popular American novelist in the first half of the twentieth century. She embarked on her career by working as a newspaper reporter in Wisconsin and soon began writing novels. Her first novel, Dawn O’Hara, the Girl Who Laughed, was published in 1911, when she was only twenty-four years old.

Her big break came with the novel So Big (1924), which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Literature. The main conflict in the novel is between a mother who places a high value on hard work and honor and a son who repudiates his mother’s values, instead preferring the easier path to fortune and celebrity. Like many of Ferber’s novels, this novel features a tenacious female protagonist with strong character who struggles to deal with ethical dilemmas about the importance of status and money.

… … … … … … … … … … . … … … … … … … … … … … … …

*Adopted from Longman Course for The TOEFL Test: iBT (Phillips 2010)

  1. The phrase embarked on in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to

    1. took a trip to

    2. started out on

    3. improved upon

    4. had an opinion about

  2. The word break in paragraph 2 could best be replaced by

    1. rupture

    2. revelation

    3. opportunity

    4. rest

  3. The word places in paragraph 2 could best be replaced by

    1. locates

    2. puts

    3. recites

    4. positions

Appendix II: Sample vocabulary strategies

Q1- to relate the unknown word by its word form (i. e. appearance similarity) to another word previously learned.

Q2- to utilize syntactic cues (i. e. the relationship between sentences and clauses, and the additional meaning given in the sentence)

Q3- to utilize morphological analysis (i. e. prefix, suffix).

Q4- to check the part of speech of the unknown word.

Q5- to utilize semantic cues (i. e. synonyms, restatement, comparison and contrast).

Q6- to utilize prior knowledge by examining the title or illustrations.

Q7- to use personal experiences (i. e. the association between an object and its function).

Q8- to visualize the content.

Q9- to reread the sentence including the unknown word.

Q10- to generate questions about the words they don’t understand.

Q11- to produce synonyms to substitute for the unknown word.

Q12- to read it aloud in an attempt to make a sound link.

Q13- to slow their reading rate in an attempt to comprehend the word meaning.

Q14- to have a self-directed dialogue (i. e. talking to oneself).

Q15- to translate word for word.

Q16- learned to comment on their behavior or guessing process.

Q17- to monitor their comprehension of the word meaning.

Q18- to evaluate the guessing.

Q19- to note errors in the guessing process and recover word meaning through repair.

Q20- to distinguish between critical and unimportant words.

Q21- to detour the difficult words and try another skill, e. g. continue reading.

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Published Online: 2017-5-18
Published in Print: 2018-5-25

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  3. Is first language attrition possible without second language knowledge?
  4. The development of aspectual marking in Cantonese-English bilingual children
  5. Korean L2 speakers’ regulatory focus and oral task performance
  6. Vocabulary acquisition and young learners: Different tasks, similar involvement loads
  7. The role of text type and strategy use in L2 lexical inferencing
https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2015-0054
Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel
lexical inferencing; text type; strategy use

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  3. Is first language attrition possible without second language knowledge?
  4. The development of aspectual marking in Cantonese-English bilingual children
  5. Korean L2 speakers’ regulatory focus and oral task performance
  6. Vocabulary acquisition and young learners: Different tasks, similar involvement loads
  7. The role of text type and strategy use in L2 lexical inferencing
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