A Correlation Study On A Lexical Model Among Esl Tertiary Learners
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Date
2016-01
Authors
Wu, Xiao Juan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
This study aims to examine the relationship between lexical knowledge towards understanding tertiary students’ academic lexical competence. The study investigates the lexical knowledge variables (passive vocabulary’s breadth and depth, controlled active vocabulary’s breadth and depth, free active vocabulary’s breadth and depth) and lexical competence variables (passive vocabulary competence, controlled active vocabulary competence, and free active vocabulary competence) pertaining to the Academic English performance of selected Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) tertiary students. This study adopts the quantitative-based cross sectional survey method. The participants consisted of 155 tertiary students of the Academic English course chosen from USM which were selected based on the stratified random sampling method. The linear structural and relational structural equation modelling (LISREL-SEM) tools were employed to analyze the data. Statistical results show that three exogenous latent variables of lexical knowledge have explained 58%, 66%, and 93% of the variance in the dependent variables (R1=0.58, R2=0.66, R3=0.93). The most significant factors in lexical knowledge are evaluated and tested in this research (X2/df=2.05, RESEA=0.04, GFI=0.91, AGFI=0.90, NNFI=0.95, CFI=0.90 and P<0.05). The RESEA’s value of 0.04 was less than the cutoff value of 0.05, and it was considered as an approximation of the root mean square error. The findings provide an indication of the potential lexical factors to facilitate tertiary students to learn vocabulary actively in academic English class in the ESL environment. Finally, this study also provides a number of recommendations and suggestions for future studies.
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Keywords
Lexical knowledge