Author/Authors :
Hashemi ، Seyede Zahra نويسنده Department of Foreign Languages, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran , , Bagheri ، Mohammad Sadegh نويسنده Department of Foreign Languages, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran , , Sadighi، Firooz نويسنده , , yarmohammadi، lotfollah نويسنده ,
Abstract :
Many factors (internal and external) are claimed to influence students’ reading comprehension test performance .Among such factors one can refer to breadth of vocabulary knowledge which is classified as an internal reader variable. In addition to the limited literature, the existence of contradictory results highlights the necessity to conduct a survey with different participants and at a different setting. As a result, this research targets at finding the extent to which this factor influences English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ reading comprehension (RC) test performance. A total of 207 students (102 males and 105 females) participated in this study. They took an RC test from TOEFL: test of English as a foreign language and a vocabulary size test. The analysis of the gathered data was then conducted through running simple linear regressions. The results revealed that breadth of vocabulary knowledge is an influential factor in RC test performance and can be used to predict EFL learners’ reading ability. These findings have implications for language instructors, EFL students, and curriculum organizers.
