The Effects Of Morphological Transparency And Vocabulary Knowledge On Lexical Inferencing For Chinese Non-English Majors In English Reading

This study aims to explore the effects of vocabulary knowledge level andmorphological transparency on lexical inferencing during L2reading. Byadministering a number of tests, the study took as subjects150second-yearnon-English majors from Qingdao University of Science and Technology. Theresearch design was a2(L2vocabulary knowledge level: low and high) x2(morphological transparency: opaque and transparent) factorial. The present studyaddresses the following three questions:(1)What effect does English vocabulary knowledge level have on English lexicalinferencing ability during reading?(2)What effect does morphological transparency have on English lexical inferencingduring reading?(3)Do morphological transparency and English vocabulary knowledge level haveany interactive effects on L2lexical inferencing during reading?After the subjects ifnished all the experimental tasks, their scores were sorted out,input into a computer and analyzed with SPSS16.0. The results show that:(1)Learners’ English vocabulary knowledge level contributes considerably to theirlexical inferencing ability during reading. High-level learners’ lexical inferencingability is signiifcantly higher than that of their low-level counterparts;(2)Morphological transparency signiifcantly influences Chinese EFL learners’ lexicalinferencing during L2reading. Compared with morphologically opaque words, thosemorphologically transparent ones can be inferred more accurately and successfully;(3)Vocabulary knowledge level and morphological transparency have a signiifcant two-way interactive effect on lexical inferencing. Morphological transparency showsgreater facilitation for low-level learners in lexical inferencing than for theirhigh-level counetrparts.These ifndings have meaningful pedagogical implications. First, in their teachingpractice, teachers should lay more emphasis on the analysis of lexical morphologicalstructure, encourage their students to have more morphological knowledge of Englishvocabulary and guide them to learn how to correctly analyze words morphologicallyto infer word meanings in the process of L2reading. Moreover, it is necessary forteachers to explore different types of trainings tailored to students of differentvocabulary levels so that they can consolidate their skill of analyzing wordsmorphologically. As L2vocabulary knowledge level affects learners’ lexicalinferencing ability, teachers should impart certain vocabulary learning strategies totheir students and encourage them to establish a huge vocabulary knowledge networkso as to enlarge their vocabulary constantly and improve their lexical inferencingability.