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Understanding Unfamiliar Words In a Text: Do L2 Learners Understand How Much They Don't Understand?
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... In the domain of FL proficiency, however, the literature is both scarce and with mixed results (e.g. Laufer and Yano 2001;Sáinz and Malpica 2023;Tamjid 2008) which represents a gap in the current research. As such, female underestimation of their FL proficiency might disadvantage females in the labour market or negatively impact their educational careers. ...
... For example, Kaivanpanah and Alavi (2008) investigated how accurately 110 Iranian EFL learners assess their understanding of unknown words. They state that males in their sample over-assessed their vocabulary knowledge more than females, which is, according to the authors, contrary to the earlier findings of Laufer and Yano (2001). Culture has been suggested as a relevant factor in these contradictory findings (Kaivanpanah and Alavi 2008). ...
... Culture has been suggested as a relevant factor in these contradictory findings (Kaivanpanah and Alavi 2008). Though it should be noted that males in their study not only reported higher vocabulary knowledge, but also scored higher on the objective vocabulary test (Kaivanpanah and Alavi 2008), which was not the case in the earlier study by Laufer and Yano (2001). Next, Basak (2019) found that male Turkish EFL students assessed their speaking skills significantly higher than female students, while the teachers evaluated males' and females' speaking skills without any significant difference. ...
Gender gaps in students’ foreign language proficiency self-assessment can negatively impact their educational careers and position in the labour market. We investigated how female and male students self-assess their English as a foreign language (EFL) proficiency in comparison to their EFL test scores. We further examined the potential differential effect of EFL class-related factors – having a teacher from abroad who is perceived as an English L1 teacher (PEL1T) and an excellent grade in EFL class – on females’ and males’ EFL proficiency self-assessment. Data were collected from 1,399 Czech lower secondary students, who were asked to assess their EFL proficiency on a 7-point rating scale ranging from None to Expert. Our results show that when comparing self-assessment of a female and a male with the same test score, the female would, on average, select a lower self-assessment value than the male. Also, having a PEL1T and having an excellent grade in EFL class are significantly positively associated with higher EFL proficiency self-assessment. However, these positive effects are smaller for females compared to males.
... Nouns were the second easiest word group to guess their meaning in context after verbs, while adjectives were the most difficult word groups in terms of guessing meaning in context. Laufer and Yano (2001) and Kaivanpanah and Alavi (2008) investigated how reliable learners' guesses are and whether gender and language proficiency (Kaivanpanah & Alavi, 2008), and gender, culture and better lexical knowledge (Laufer & Yano, 2001) play a role in learners' self-assessment. Firstly, intermediate EFL learners (Kaivanpanah & Alavi, 2008) and advanced EFL learners with around the knowledge of 4,000 word families (Laufer & Yano, 2001) were asked to rate themselves on a scale indicating their level of comprehension of unknown words that are highlighted in reading passages. ...
... Nouns were the second easiest word group to guess their meaning in context after verbs, while adjectives were the most difficult word groups in terms of guessing meaning in context. Laufer and Yano (2001) and Kaivanpanah and Alavi (2008) investigated how reliable learners' guesses are and whether gender and language proficiency (Kaivanpanah & Alavi, 2008), and gender, culture and better lexical knowledge (Laufer & Yano, 2001) play a role in learners' self-assessment. Firstly, intermediate EFL learners (Kaivanpanah & Alavi, 2008) and advanced EFL learners with around the knowledge of 4,000 word families (Laufer & Yano, 2001) were asked to rate themselves on a scale indicating their level of comprehension of unknown words that are highlighted in reading passages. ...
... Laufer and Yano (2001) and Kaivanpanah and Alavi (2008) investigated how reliable learners' guesses are and whether gender and language proficiency (Kaivanpanah & Alavi, 2008), and gender, culture and better lexical knowledge (Laufer & Yano, 2001) play a role in learners' self-assessment. Firstly, intermediate EFL learners (Kaivanpanah & Alavi, 2008) and advanced EFL learners with around the knowledge of 4,000 word families (Laufer & Yano, 2001) were asked to rate themselves on a scale indicating their level of comprehension of unknown words that are highlighted in reading passages. Secondly, in order to see how realistic the learners' self-assessment was, they were asked to provide a translation, synonym, antonym or explanation of these unfamiliar words. ...
The present study attempts to explore the effect of language proficiency on the ability to guess the grammatical roles of unknown words, to make use of contextual clues, and to guess the meaning of unknown words from context by examining EFL learners majoring in different departments at university. Guessing from Context Test (GCT) developed by Sasao and Webb (2018) was used to collect data to measure EFL learners' guessing skills as well as their ability to identify both the part of speech of an unfamiliar word and contextual clues that help them infer the meaning of unfamiliar words. The findings indicate that English-major EFL learners significantly perform better than non-English major EFL learners in each of the three categories in the GCT. More specifically, correctly guessing the meaning of unknown words lags behind correctly guessing the grammatical class of unknown words in both groups. Similarly, the rate of correct guessing of contextual clues in both groups is not as high as the grammatical class of unknown words. On the other hand, while English-major EFL learners correctly guess the meanings of the words for which they cannot correctly guess the clues, non-English major EFL learners cannot benefit from correctly guessed contextual clues to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words. Also, nouns and verbs are the word groups whose grammatical class is best predicted in both groups.
... Single period of instruction may not only be ineffective, but may actually be counterproductive under certain circumstances. According to Laufer and Yano (2001) [26], L2 learners in academic settings are expected to overcome a vast amount of reading materials intended for native speakers, and yet studies conducted across high schools and universities indicate that their vocabulary knowledge does not amount to a quarter of the vocabulary known by their native speaking peers. ...
... Single period of instruction may not only be ineffective, but may actually be counterproductive under certain circumstances. According to Laufer and Yano (2001) [26], L2 learners in academic settings are expected to overcome a vast amount of reading materials intended for native speakers, and yet studies conducted across high schools and universities indicate that their vocabulary knowledge does not amount to a quarter of the vocabulary known by their native speaking peers. ...
This study aimed to identify the impact of vocabulary level to performance in reading and writing. The study used the descriptive correlation research design to establish the relationship of the students’ vocabulary size to their reading and writing skills. Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) was used to measure the strength of relationship between the two variables- vocabulary level and reading and writing skills. Vocabulary Level Test, adapted from Nation (1990) [1], was used to measure vocabulary level, and the reading and writing final mark was used for students’ performance in reading and writing. Based on the findings, vocabulary level has significant relationship to reading and writing performance of students. The result shows that students who have average vocabulary level can achieve average performance in reading and writing courses. Vocabulary level is a valid indicator of reading and writing performance.
... Single period of instruction may not only be ineffective, but may actually be counterproductive under certain circumstances. According to Laufer and Yano (2001) [20], L2 learners in academic settings are expected to overcome a vast amount of reading materials intended for native speakers, and yet studies conducted across high schools and universities indicate that their vocabulary knowledge does not amount to a quarter of the vocabulary known by their native speaking peers. ...
... Single period of instruction may not only be ineffective, but may actually be counterproductive under certain circumstances. According to Laufer and Yano (2001) [20], L2 learners in academic settings are expected to overcome a vast amount of reading materials intended for native speakers, and yet studies conducted across high schools and universities indicate that their vocabulary knowledge does not amount to a quarter of the vocabulary known by their native speaking peers. ...
This study aimed to identify the correlation of vocabulary range to performance in listening and speaking. The study used the descriptive correlation research design to establish the relationship of the students’ vocabulary size to their Listening and Speaking Skills. Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) was used to measure the strength of relationship between the two variables- vocabulary size and Listening and Speaking Skills. Vocabulary Level Test, adapted from Nation (1990) [1], was used to measure vocabulary range, and the listening and speaking skills final mark was used for students’ performance in listening and speaking. Based on the findings, vocabulary range has no significant relationship to listening and speaking skills of students. The result shows that students who have average vocabulary range can still achieve high performance grade in speaking and listening courses.
... Sometimes, the meaning of unknown words can be derived from the context, but only to a limited extent. To do so, readers would already need to have a relatively large vocabulary, and the coverage in the specific text they read would need to be nearly 98 percent, or only one unknown word for every 50 known words (Hsueh-Chao & Nation, 2000;Laufer, 1992;Laufer & Yano, 2001). Moreover, too much task-switching between problemsolving and comprehension during reading occupies working memory resources required for understanding and can therefore interrupt the flow of reading (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990;Kirschner & De Bruyckere, 2017;Willingham, 2017). ...
We, in education, all have a common aim: We want students to be able to think deeply about what we teach them, go beyond their current experiences, and have a deep understanding of the world. We want to enable them to think critically, work together, solve problems, read for understanding, and carry out complex cognitive tasks. If we want students to be able to do all this, we should just include itt in the curriculum and teach them, right? In this chapter, we discuss why this apparently obvious strategy of simply teaching children how to think deeply does not work, and offer an alternative way forward. This chapter discusses the prominent role of knowledge in how we learn, think, read, understand, and solve problems. Insights from cognitive and educational psychology, sociology, and curriculum studies are used to underpin the current knowledge revival that is widely being observed in education.
... Sometimes, the meaning of unknown words can be derived from the context, but only to a limited extent. To do so, readers would already need to have a relatively large vocabulary, and the coverage in the specific text they read would need to be nearly 98 percent, or only one unknown word for every 50 known words (Hsueh-Chao & Nation, 2000;Laufer, 1992;Laufer & Yano, 2001). Moreover, too much task-switching between problemsolving and comprehension during reading occupies working memory resources required for understanding and can therefore interrupt the flow of reading (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990;Kirschner & De Bruyckere, 2017;. ...
... Sometimes, the meaning of unknown words can be derived from the context, but only to a limited extent. To do so, readers would already need to have a relatively large vocabulary, and the coverage in the specific text they read would need to be nearly 98 percent, or only one unknown word for every 50 known words (Hsueh-Chao & Nation, 2000;Laufer, 1992;Laufer & Yano, 2001). Moreover, too much task-switching between problemsolving and comprehension during reading occupies working memory resources required for understanding and can therefore interrupt the flow of reading (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990;Kirschner & De Bruyckere, 2017;. ...
Nearly all teachers and other stakeholders in education pursue a common aim: we want the students whom we teach and guide during their formative years to think deeply about what we teach them. We want them to be able to go beyond their current experiences and have a deep understanding of the world.
... As evident in Table 1.1, the previous knowledge among sample participants was not found to be satisfactory for interpreting and scripting the ideas effectively. It is important to acknowledge that in pedagogical practice, incorrect inferences are retained in the long term, as highlighted by (Laufer & Yano, 2001). This is specific to learners when they are not made aware of the practical correctness of what they are acquiring. ...
A powerful communication strategy plays a key role in professional settings, all the while demonstrating its ability to garner admiration and respect. Over time, Language is an ever-evolving system from a usage standpoint. Despite several existing methods, the quality of knowledge of technical communication remains a persistent challenge for non-native speakers at the instructional level. This paper explores how engineering students can acquire an understanding of and practice functional technical English by preparing micro and macro projects. This study examined 200 student projects, each comprising 20 pages and approximately 300 lines. These projects serve for statistical analysis and are evaluated based on specific five test areas, such as usage of tense, change of voice, concord, vocabulary, and connectors. The two groups (EG & CG) were offered pretest and post-test. The result of the analysis is interpreted with the help of line graphs that assess the comparability of the two groups. Remedial measures with sequence flow charts were suggested to the participants that served the purpose of mending their deficient areas, which, if believed, would enhance their career progression. This method would assist tertiary-level students in breaking language barriers, enabling them to express their ideas in writing and speaking more effectively using technical language, especially in the ordinary usage of technical means to explain complex technical principles. A language is language, when reflected in the correct sense with the ability to use it functionally rather than learning it for years.
... While (Laufer & Yano, 2001) disputed that guessing is not a reliable strategy as it might be sufficient and confusing at times, so a second strategy to reinforce the reading activity is necessary, like using a dictionary. (Boonmoh, 2012) added that students might face considerable difficulties when reading if they do not possess the skill of managing their dictionary usage strategically. ...
Purpose - The purpose of this study was to find out what strategies EFL students used to developvocabulary through personalized reading materials. In addition, this study was also conducted to findout how Free Voluntary Reading help students develop their vocabulary as EFL. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses a descriptive qualitative research design in answeringthe research questions. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews to the students of EFL class of 2019and 2020 in the English Language Education Department. There were 11 students (22,4%) who wereinterviewed in this research. Findings/results – The results showed that the strategies used by EFL students were as follows: readingauthentic materials, choosing reading materials according to genres, making notes about newvocabulary, and always looking for any content with English subtitles. In addition, the researcher alsofound out how several forms of Free Voluntary Reading helped the vocabulary development of EFLstudents. Originality/value - Free Voluntary Reading has an important influence on EFL students, especially indeveloping vocabulary. Paper type – Research paper
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