Investigating Guided Extensive Reading And Vocabulary Knowledge Performance Among Remedial Esl Learners In A Public University In Malaysia

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Date
2016-01
Authors
Tan, Debbita Ai Lin
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Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Research supports extensive reading, which draws on incidental learning, as a primary tool for second/foreign language vocabulary knowledge development. However, while it is deemed useful for vocabulary learning, the claim that extensive reading on its own is sufficient for learners to experience significant lexical gains has been challenged. Instead, a more fitting measure appears to be a combination of incidental and intentional vocabulary learning, with extensive reading followed by direct vocabulary study. Given the issue of Malaysian tertiary students lacking English vocabulary knowledge, this quasi-experimental research implemented a method of vocabulary learning incorporating extensive reading using graded readers and direct vocabulary study (GER Plus) in an effort to observe its effectiveness for receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge development, as compared against another method (GER) in which only extensive reading was utilised. The research was carried out in a Malaysian public university employing three groups of students (GER Plus, GER, Control) registered for a preparatory English language course, a remedial English language proficiency course. Pre-reading vocabulary size testing was conducted to determine the graded reader level at which to start the participants. On the whole, the intervention period lasted approximately 10 weeks and each of the 93 participants was subjected to a pre-, post- and delayed post-test using the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale. Results from two-way mixed ANOVA analyses indicate that the GER Plus group performed significantly better than the GER and Control groups for both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge recall and retention. In addition, to establish better data certainty, all the participants were administered questionnaires and the teachers of the involved groups as well as the chief coordinator of the preparatory English language course were interviewed. The research concludes that GER Plus represents an option that is both viable and effective for significant and sustained vocabulary knowledge development. The findings of this research have, in essence, provided a comprehensive insight of the potentials as well as the prerequisites of a reading and vocabulary development method that go beyond conventional extensive reading, and are particularly vital to the interests of remedial English language learners, language instructors and course planners at the Malaysian tertiary level.
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Extensive reading
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