Developing English Language Speaking Confidence: A Case Study of Pronunciation among students of Odisha

1. Introduction

English is a vehicle for international communication. In order to meet the demands of modern society, English teachers need to pay more attention to the development of learners’ competence and focus on a more effective and successful method. However traditional approaches to English language teaching still dominate Indian classrooms. Language teachers should not focus on reciting but should teach from their own understanding of language learning and help learners gain more competence with confidence.

In the field of English as a Second Language (ESL) the necessity for, and method of, teaching pronunciation has become a controversial topic. Many second language educators have varied opinions on the importance of including pronunciation practice within their lesson plans. Classroom activities should cater to what their students consider their most important personal goals or reasons for learning the language. For example, students may wish to build their vocabulary skills or strengthen their testing skills in English. Regardless of current trends or what students may feel their selected needs are, it is safe to say that teaching pronunciation is often considered essential in an ESL class where survival skills are imperative to the students’ daily lives. In an ESL setting, the students must not only increase their English comprehension for the classroom, but also need to communicate and interact in English outside the class in various situations. Students need to understand and to be understood. If they cannot hear English well, they are cut off from the language except in printed form. If they cannot be understood easily, they are cut off from conversation with native speakers. In the English as a foreign language (EFL) setting, survival skills play a less important role. English is not necessary for students to communicate with each other. English is not often used to make friends or to be understood outside of the classroom. It would be easy, therefore, for the teacher to neglect implementing pronunciation tasks in their lessons because they feel there is little or no need for the students to work on that aspect of the language. This attitude denies the students the opportunity to gain precise command of the English language. The process of learning English is interconnected. This means that each area of the language that is being taught helps improve other aspect of the language. Pronunciation and listening comprehension are linked together by a unified system within which individual sounds are systematically related. Students need this sense of a system in order to make sense of the separate pieces. If the students’ English pronunciation skills are improved, clearly their listening skills and speaking skills become more refined. Spelling skills are also improved when the knowledge of English pronunciation has been increased.

Effects of limited knowledge of pronunciation

Research has shown that a command of native or close-to-native pronunciation of a foreign language is no easy task, especially for learners who begin studying a foreign language after puberty. Although non-native pronunciation and intonation are not necessarily obstacles to successful communication with English speakers from other parts of the world, too much accented or distorted speech will frequently give rise to misunderstandings, miscommunication and frustration. Incomprehensible non standard pronunciation and intonation will produce psychological nervousness in speakers, which is likely to also block their efforts to seek clarification or to paraphrase using alternative expressions with phonetically different pronunciation and intonation. All communication is intentional communication and that understanding is a matter of interpreting what is intended rather than decoding the referential meaning of utterances. However, it is obvious that this kind of interpretation should take the interlocutors’ speech as its basis in face to face spoken interaction. But meanings are blurred, distorted, or buried when pronunciation is grossly unclear or inaccurate.

Pronunciation is a key element of the learning of oral skills in a second language. The role it plays in an English language program varies and the amount of time and effort devoted to it seems to depend to a large degree on the individual teacher. This means that it may or may not form part of regular classroom activity or student self-study. However, students so often cite pronunciation as being very important and a priority for them. Confidence influences students to speak out. They will not be afraid of making mistakes or being blamed. The necessity of confidence in articulation is that when teaching pronunciation, working through a list of sounds and practice are important. With regular practice, learners improve their performance and feel confident

2. The Problem

Odisha students tend to use Odia speech patterns or styles when speaking English. Some will not speak out because they are afraid of making mistakes and are embarrassed. Pronunciation training and Language Learning Strategies (LLS) may improve their competence. This study focused on if and how pronunciation training with LLS increased confidence and improved learners to become intelligible speakers. Being an intelligible speaker is to understand and to be understood. As English teaching has moved to language functions and communicative competencies, a new urgency for the teaching of pronunciation has arisen. In Odisha however, pronunciation has not yet received similar attention. The experience of the researcher is that, a great number of students have many difficulties in pronunciation. When speaking English, with very little or poorly trained pronunciation skills, they have problems either making themselves understood or understanding others. A review of the studies of teacher attitudes and practices revealed that pronunciation is an area that some teachers avoid or are reluctant to teach. Teaching in ESL programs in Odisha face some difficulties meeting the pronunciation learning needs of their students, and have indicated that many teachers tend to avoid dealing with pronunciation because they lack confidence, skills and knowledge. Into this, these studies found that curricula, methodology and the lack of suitable materials, all contributed to inadequacies of teaching and learning in this area, although both students and teachers see the value of intelligible pronunciation in second language learning. Generally, pronunciation plays an important role in helping the learner become an intelligible speaker. There are many obstacles for teachers on Odisha to teach English including insufficient English language skills. The researcher learned that college teachers in Odisha seldom teach the phonetics of English words and few of them are familiar with phonetic symbols. As for learners, they wish they could speak English fluently but most of them think that English is too challenging for them to be competent because of interference from the mother tongue ( Odia) particularly in pronunciation and being too shy to speak English. Further Odisha students have problems of listening to dialogues and texts as well as problems of pronunciation. English curricula in the colleges of Odisha cannot meet the demands for English. The skills needed most are listening and speaking which have minor focus in Odisha secondary English books but are not the focus skills in tertiary education English curriculum .The researcher would like to help Odia students to be confident when speaking English.

3. Literature Review

This reviews of literature studies of the importance of pronunciation training, awareness raising, positive attitude and motivation that affect learners’ acquisition, and discusses how language learning strategies help learners improve their pronunciation in the target language and lead to confidence in speaking. Discussions of English language learning and teaching are also presented. O’Malley and Chamot (1990:29) define learning strategies as “special thoughts or behaviours that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information” and classify these strategies into three major types: metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, and

Social/affective strategies. Drawing on the research byO’Malley and Chamot (1990) and Oxford (1990) enables the researcher to compile almost comprehensive classification of language learning strategies with six major categories. The direct strategies consist of memory strategies, cognitive strategies, and compensation strategies; the indirect category contains metacognitive strategies, affective language learning strategies, and social strategies. Oxford (1990b:71) distinguishes between direct LLS, "which directly involve the subject matter", i.e. the L2 or FL, and indirect LLS, which "do not directly involve the subject matter itself, but are essential to language learning nonetheless". One point to note about the learning strategies is that they “are not the preserve of highly capable individuals, but could be learned by others who had not discovered them on their own” (O’Malley & Chamot 1990:31).The argument that learning strategies are teachable also helps to break the myth that some learners have an aptitude for languages and thus achieve high language proficiency without too much effort. This preconceived notion may demotivate under achieving learners so much that they give up learning and teachers seem not to play a significant part in the language classroom. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, development in the area of second language acquisition research turned attention away from a teaching-centered perspective to one which included interest in how the actions of learners might affect their acquisition of language. In other words, the belief that individual learners’ endeavors tend to be a governing factor in the language learning process gradually formed among a number of scholars (Schmitt1997). Language teachers, therefore, were motivated to examine what individual learners, especially successful learners, do in their study in order to elicit useful information on the process of language acquisition. Rubin (1975) and Stern (1975) are two of the earliest researchers who shifted their focus from teaching methods and materials to a more learner-centered aspect, maintaining that successful language learners employ a variety of learning strategies in their study to facilitate language acquisition.

4. Objectives

4.1. General objectives.

The study aimed to investigate pronunciation training and language learning strategies and establish if, how and to what extent those approaches increase confidence and improve communicative competence of learners.

4.2. Specific objectives

1. To demonstrate the importance of pronunciation training in a classroom, in order to prompt more teachers to reconsider the relationship between the student and pronunciation.

2. To investigate the use of a LLS framework, if and how it enhances the communicative competence, specifically, the learners’ speaking skill.

3. To evaluate the effectiveness of the training, to see if, how and to what extent the approaches raise the learners’ awareness of their improvement and confidence in speaking.

5. Methodology

This study is a collaborative action research investigation to develop pronunciation training and communicative competence for Odisha students studying English in Odisha. This study investigated pronunciation training and language learning strategies, how they influenced the learning behavior of students of Odisha studying English and improved their speaking confidence. The purpose of the training is to improve students’ pronunciation and spoken intelligibility. It draws upon data collected in pronunciation training in thirty two colleges in Odisha using language learning strategies and evaluated improvement after being trained in developing speaking confidence. The project contains two cycles, the first of which was to train 32 teachers using pronunciation training and language learning strategies. This research was undertaken as action research and focused on two approaches: 1) pronunciation training and 2) Language Learning Strategies (LLS). Both were used in the training for participants. There were 32 English teachers and 128 students selected from teachers’ classes, to establish if, how and to what extent the approaches increase confidence and improve the communicative competence of learners. The improvement and confidence gained from those three areas were recorded through learners’ reports. The pronunciation training was conducted according to Schmidt’s three aspects of consciousness involved in language learning: awareness, intention and knowledge and using course outlines The Collins Cobuild Learner’s Dictionary was used to check the correctness of each word pronounced in class as well as self directed learning and assessment.

5.1. Structure of the research

The study was undertaken in two cycles to demonstrate the importance of pronunciation training and language learning strategies that support learners to achieve their language learning. It covers three areas that aimed to provide learners with a comprehensive insight into ways of teaching pronunciation and self directed learning. First, the area of pronunciation: segmental aspects (the study of sounds), and supra segmental aspects (the study of stress, rhythm and intonation). Second, the area of language learning strategies and pronunciation learning strategies which learners used in the classroom to achieve their goals

5.2. Research questions

The study sought answers to these questions:

1. Does pronunciation training and LLS increase confidence and improve communicative competence of learners?

2. To what extent does pronunciation training using segmental and supra segmental aspects and LLS contribute to the improvement of learners’ competence that help learners to speak confidently, and at what level?

3. What impact does training have on learner confidence and how is it reported?

6. Findings

The researcher evaluated their improvement in correct speech and in developing speaking confidence. In the second cycle, these teachers in turn taught a group of four students each and similar improvements were observed. The action phases showed the implications of the importance of pronunciation training in Odisha context and the usefulness of dictionary usage to help learners to improve their competence and to have more confidence to speak English. The project resulted in a change of policy by the council to include pronunciation teaching and to allocate English classes to teachers who understood that process. The pronunciation learning strategies in this study and those of other researchers were presented to formulate strategies as a contribution for teachers to include teaching pronunciation in their classroom instruction. The researcher intends that the data will be useful for language teachers to help them further their understanding of their students’ learning behavior to achieve improved pronunciation. In addition, the phonetic symbol system used in the training was chiefly inspired from the symbols of the International Phonetic Association (IPA) to be standardized and easy to apply. However, the researcher would present here for references some coded symbols shown in this study which can be  used for readers who are unfamiliar with the IPA alphabet. They are/th/ =/Τ/, /th/ voiced = /Δ/, /zh/ = /Ζ/, /j/ = /dΖ/, /sh/ = /Σ/ and /ch/=/tΣ/.

6.1. Levels of English skills of Odia students

English is generally the first foreign language that students must study in schools. Odisha’s’ level of English proficiency is low in comparison with many states in India e.g.Karnatak, Kerala, Delhi and Maharastra.  The revised proficiency-based curriculum will provide students with the opportunity to continue their English education without interruption and to facilitate life-long learning .From studies of the levels of Odia students’ English ability in speaking and listening between 1972 and 1988 was in Grade 7- 9 was very poor. Students have problems in listening to dialogues and texts as well as problems of pronunciation.  Researchers have also finds that the English curriculum in the universities of Odisha cannot meet the demands of English used in the workplace. The skills used most are listening and speaking, which are not the focus skills in the Odisha tertiary education English curriculum.

6.2. English problem sounds for Odia students

Language is a cognitive skill, which includes productive skills of writing and speaking and receptive skills of reading and writing as well as language components, namely vocabulary, structure and phonology the English sounds which are considered problem sounds for Odisha  students can be divided into three categories:

1)      Sounds that do not occur in Odia: These sounds are /ϖ/ e.g. van, every; /Τ /or /th/ e.g. thin, breath; /Δ /or /th/ e.g. mother, then; /ζ/ e.g. zero, nasal; /Σ /or /sh/ e.g. share, notion; /Ζ / or /zh/ e.g casual, beige;/tΣ/or /ch/ e.g. future, cherry; /dΖ /or /j/ e.g. gentle, jelly and /γ/ e.g. gamble, legal. Normally Odia students cannot pronounce these sounds though  they exist in the odia language

2)       

Although some English sounds exist in odia, they do not occur at the final position in odia and most Odia students fail to pronounce them when they appear finally in English words .

a. /l/ substituted by /n/

b. /f/ substituted by unreleased /β/

c. /s/ substituted by unreleased /δ/

d. /s/ may be omitted when occurs after diphthongs /ai/ e.g. nice,/au/ i.e. house, /Οi/ e.g. rejoice. This is because in Odia there is no consonant sound following these diphthongs.

e. /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, and /k/ are pronounced as unreleased instead of released sounds because these sounds are pronounced unreleased when they occur in final position in Odia words.

Sounds that are phonetically different from Odia equivalents: /r/, /i/,/e/, /u/, and /o/; that is, their production is not the same. The English/r/ sound can be formed in the ways depending upon different speakers and dialects. For example, retroflex/r/ is made by moving the sides of the tongue against the back teeth. The front of the tongue is lowered but the tip is turned upward and withdrawn towards the back of the mouth, whereas the odia  /r/ sound is just a trilled /r/. Tense vowels such as /i/, /e/, /u/, and /o/ are slight diphthongs; that is, they are pronounced with a diphthongal quality. The degree of diphthongization is greatest when these slight diphthongs occur in a stressed syllable. On the other hand, the Odia vowels of /i/, /e/, /u/, and /o/ do not have this diphthongal quality. The strategies for overcoming incomprehension are simply another aspect of the total communication-language learning process. Teachers need to help learners become aware of strategies they need for effective communication, whether in making themselves understood, or in understanding what another speaker has said.

6.3. The researcher’s inspiration and problem identification

The idea of pronunciation training to improve communicative competence and confidence of non-native speakers was clearly identified from the researcher’s experience in pronunciation teaching. The development of the researcher’s pronunciation teaching and training was as follows. After the researcher finished his Bachelor’s degree in 1982, the researcher was inspired to think about the idea of pronunciation training from the BBC in All India Radio he presented English language in Odia accent as much he knew. He saw that the other presenters were reluctant, uncomfortable and passed quickly when they had to speak English words. The researcher wondered why Odia people were afraid of speaking English. What problems were they having? His interest had focused on this area since then. The researcher completed Masters Degree in language learning in 1992 and discovered that confidence increased when speakers improved articulation and with regular practice they could improve performance and confidence. .As the researcher of this project, is working in a college he is responsible for teaching English to the students he is teaching that is Shreedhara Swamy College of Education and Technology in Dhenkanal District of Odisha. At the time of this research, the researcher is curious about why Odisha students kept silent in an English class when they were faced with foreigners. The researcher served his curiosity by contributing to teaching English in his institution. The researcher taught a group of students that was weak in English and helped them in many problem areas of English but his interest focuses on teaching Odia students to speak phonetically and correctly. The researcher has a strong intention to develop and improve students’ abilities to speak with both accuracy and fluency and to become intelligible speakers. He found that they tended to learn English word for word and to memorize the pronunciation of individual English words. Because they are unable to make use of phonetic symbols to remember unfamiliar words, they had difficulty developing extensive vocabularies in English.

6.4. Development from accuracy based to fluency based learning

The researcher continued teaching pronunciation as his first job, which was in the area of English language teaching. He found that students were happy to learn about the articulation of sounds and symbols. Students’ reports were positive though they claimed that they needed more practice and the researcher agreed that practice was the way to improve. The researcher knows that he can’t speak as perfect as a native speaker just after one quarter’s study. It was impossible. The researcher became quite clear it is a long way to improve English speaking. What is important is that the researcher learned the ways to improve his pronunciation and realized his weakness, then, could practice and apply the rules to himself in the future. The reports from the students reflecting on their achievement inspired the researcher to search for answers and start the project of pronunciation teaching. They would happily speak English after the course although they were not fluent. The researcher regularly planned his lessons from the suggestions of learners, teachers and researchers to develop an appropriate course for learners. The lessons put more focus on learners’ fluency. The researcher searched from many researchers such as Morley and Derwing, Munro and Wiebe who state that effective English pronunciation training should include both ‘segmental’ and ‘suprasegmental’ aspects, that is sounds, stress and intonation. The terms segmental and suprasegmental aspects were defined by many researchers such as Morley as ‘micro and macro level ‘and ‘accuracy-based and fluency-based learning’. Therefore the researcher revised his lesson plan adding suprasegmental aspects and taught his students, and it worked well.

The realization of the researcher is that only the study of sounds is not enough. It became better after he added stress and intonation (suprasegmental aspects).He wanted to know if the same lesson was effective for other learners. Therefore he used the same pronunciation course to teach learners in this research study with the goal of achieving understandability or intelligibility. It is felt  that pronunciation is tied to identity and therefore the degree to which the learner seeks to identify with the English speaking group will directly influence that learner’s pronunciation. For better results, the researcher studied other pronunciation research to find how to make it more effective and found that within communicative approaches to language teaching, a key goal is for learners to develop communicative competence in the target language, and language learning strategies (LLS) can help them to improve their competencies. The researcher added instruction on language learning strategies to the familiarization session and found that instruction which focused on general speaking habits as opposed to a concentration on individual segments has a positive effect on learners ‘abilities and their achievement.

7. Recommendation and Conclusion

The researcher hopes the study will help bring change in the Odisha curricula in teaching English and the skills of English teachers will be focused on teaching pronunciation in class and introducing the strategies to help students achieve in their learning. It may be suggested that the use of the dictionary to help learners to self-correct their pronunciation and support self directed learning. It is hoped that teachers will learn from the study about the importance of pronunciation and language learning strategies that support students’ learning, and change their view of teaching. 

8. Bibliography

1.Abercrombie, D, 1991, ‘Teaching pronunciation’, in A. Brown (ed.) Teaching English pronunciation: A book of readings, Routledge, New York.

2.Abraham, R & Vann, R 1987, ‘Strategies of two language learners: A case study’, in A Wenden & J Rubin, (eds.), Learner strategies in language learning, Prentice.

3.Anderson, NJ 2002, The role of metacognition in second language teaching and learning, ERIC digest, April 2002, viewed 22 August 2006,

4.Atkinson, R & Vann, R 1975, ‘Mnemotechnics in second language learning’,American Psychologist, vol.30, no.8, pp. 821-828.

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6.Baker, W 2003, An investigation into the relationship between cultural awareness and second language acquisition amongst Thai undergraduate students, MA dissertation, Leicester University, UK.

7.Bialystok, E 1981, ‘The role of conscious strategies in second language proficiency’, Modern Language Journal vol. 65, no.1, pp. 24-35.

8.Bialystok, E 1983, Inferencing: testing the ‘Hypothesis testing’ hypothesis’, in MA Seliger and Long (Eds.), Classroom-oriented Research in Second Language Acquisition, Heinle & Heinle, Boston, pp. 16-19.

9.Brown, A 1987, Principles of language learning and teaching, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs.

10.Brown, A 1992, A Survey of Attitudes and teaching practice related to pronunciation teaching, Adult Multicultural Education Services, WA, Perth.

11.Burns, A & Joyce, H 1997, Focus on Speaking. National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research (NCELTR), Sydney.

12.Burns, A 1999, Collaborative action research for English teachers, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

13.Burns, A 2001, Analysis spoken discourse: Implications for TESOL, in A Burns & C Coffin (eds.) Analysing English in a global context: A reader, Routledge, London.

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16.Celce-Murcia, M 1987, ‘Teaching pronunciation as communication’, in J Morley (ed.) Current perspectives on pronunciation, TESOL, Washington.

17.Celce-Murcia, M, Brinton, D, & Goodwin, J 1996, Teaching pronunciation:Reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages, CambridgeUniversity Press, Cambridge.

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Depth and Breadth of Lexical Knowledge in Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition of English Language: A Study on EFL Undergraduate Learners in Odisha.

Introduction

Vocabulary plays a vital role in the process of language learning. Its role has been considered an important variable influencing learners ‘reading comprehension in both first and second language learning. The Correlation between Vocabulary Knowledge level preferred to use textbooks written in English to teach learners professional knowledge and strengthen their English ability. However, reading academic textbooks written in English has been regarded as a challenge for many undergraduates. One of the reasons learners could not understand the contents of academic reading was because those unfamiliar words and the lexical combination were foreign to them. So vocabulary knowledge can be used to be an important indicator to predict learners’ overall readability, the result of which may reveal that the increasing of lexical familiarity could improve one’s reading performance. Such a statement revealed that weak vocabulary knowledge may handicap one’s reading comprehension. To the definition of vocabulary knowledge, we can study a word in terms of various linguistic perspectives such as phonemes, the combination of phonemes, the formation of a word, lexical meaning, sentence structure, and its situated context.

Vocabulary knowledge should at least consist of two dimensions, vocabulary breadth and vocabulary depth. The former refers to how many words a learner knows, and the latter refers to how well a learner knows a word. In the dichotomy of vocabulary knowledge, vocabulary breadth is much easily to be investigated than vocabulary depth because of its measurability and accessibility. Most studies relative to vocabulary knowledge have adopted the concept of lexical breadth to measure how many words a learner knows. However, for vocabulary depth, perhaps due to its complexity, research into how well a learner knows a word was still sparse. Tertiary level students, in particular English major students need to read many academic textbooks written in English over their four years of academic study. Several studies demonstrated positive correlation between vocabulary breadth (size) and reading comprehension. The accumulation of vocabulary breadth is helpful in understanding the meaning of written texts but may be insufficient to comprehend the in-depth meaning of different articles, as the meaning of a word is determined by its situated context. Learners have to develop a good vocabulary depth to internalize words and combination of words to deal with various academic genres including linguistics, literature. Due to the lack of previous research of vocabulary depth, the researcher adopted the concept of lexical depth as a basis to conduct the present study and to investigate the correlation of vocabulary depth and reading comprehension of college students. Based on the above statement, this study investigated the following research questions on the participants’ overall performance while aims to investigate vocabulary knowledge in relation to different proficient groups since the differences between these two groups will be more significant and meaningful. A prevailing consensus had been that vocabulary knowledge was a vital factor to determine or influence one’s ability. If a person’s literacy was low, he or she would probably experience difficulty in acquiring the message or information from a text. Numerous studies investigating the relationship between vocabulary and reading in first language (L1) acquisition had found a significant correlation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension.

Review of Literature

The Relationship between Vocabulary and Reading

The Correlation between Vocabulary Knowledge Vocabulary should have the same weight in second or foreign language acquisition, and its importance has been recognized by several scholars. Yorio (1971), in describing some of the origins of learners’ reading problems, claimed that difficulty in using vocabulary was the sources to cause reading difficulties for foreign and second language learners. Cody (1993) and Grabe (1991) both claimed that the ability to quickly recognize words assisted learners in creating the process of automatic decoding in reading tasks for second language learners. Research on English as a second language had showed both a positive and significant correlation between learners’ vocabulary knowledge and their reading comprehension (Read, 1993, 1998; Qian, 1998, 1999, 2002; Qian & Schedl, 2004; Kaivanpanah & Zandi, 2009). According to Carr & Levy(1990), word-identification ability played a central role in successful reading in itself a complex process (Goodman, 1988; Harris & Sipay,1985). Readers comprehend and interpret a writer’s message by using their linguistic knowledge and prior knowledge. According to Rumelhart(1977), reading was an interactive process in which readers construct the meaning by using their background knowledge and information provided by the text. In the process of reading, the fact that vocabulary knowledge was instrumental in reading comprehension had long been accepted in the field of reading and vocabulary research (Nation, 2001;Alderson, 2000; Laufer, 1996). Although the more words a reader known, the better the comprehension in reading, Qian (1999) claimed that the knowledge of vocabulary depth was an important indicator to predict learner’s performance in reading tasks. Since the crucial role of vocabulary in reading had been established by many scholars, it is significant to explore how learners’ depth of vocabulary knowledge correlated to their reading comprehension.

Dimension of Vocabulary Knowledge

Linguistically, to know a word was to know its multidimensional aspects. We could examine vocabulary in terms of various kinds of linguistic knowledge via phonetic, phonology, morphology, and syntax, semantic and pragmatic. Different scholars had proposed different frameworks to examine vocabulary. To a large extent, their proposed theories Ming-Ju Alan Ho, Hsin-Yi Lien 79were complementary and, by reviewing their studies chronologically, a number of their concepts overlapped. The theoretical framework proposed by Richard (1976) laid the foundation of vocabulary research(Read, 2000) and indeed Richard’s proposals of continuant development, frequency, appropriateness, syntactic behavior, morphological property, collocation, semantic value, and various meaning of a given word, have been recast in the present study. Richard’s framework was refined by Nation (1990) into four categories to define vocabulary knowledge in terms of form, position, function and meaning and he also divided the word knowledge into two aspects, receptive and productive process. First, word form involved the pronunciation and spelling of lexical items. Second, word position dealt with syntactic issues in regard to the usage of words such as the rules for word combinations. Third, word function was to discuss the proper way of using words in specific contexts. Finally, word meaning referred to vocabulary depth and its associates. The abovementioned factors in a receptive process may play different function from those in the productive process. Therefore, knowing a word could mean being capable of recognizing and using these factors and applying words to meet different purposes. Using the ideas of partial-precise knowledge, depth of vocabulary knowledge, and receptive and productive knowledge, Henriksen (1999)generated three underlying assumptions to define vocabulary knowledge, and she also believed these three dimensions demonstrated an upgrading status of vocabulary learning. The first assumption was that lexical knowledge of a person should function as a competence to provide translation equivalents, to find the correct explanation in multiple-choice tasks, and to paraphrase target words. The second assumption indicated that the components of vocabulary depth should cover both paradigmatic and syntagmatic knowledge. The former involved a shift of the word meaning in an antonym, synonymy, hyponymy, and gradation, and the later dealt with collocation restrictions of words. The third assumption suggested that word knowledge should consist of a receptive and productive aspect. Receptive performance stood for reading and listening ability while productive ability meant writing and speaking. The receptive and productive domain thus echoed the statements of word knowledge provided by Nation (1990).80 The Correlation between Vocabulary Knowledge Ian (1998, 1999, 2002) found a positive correlation (ranging between 0.78 and 0.82) among vocabulary size, vocabulary depth, and reading comprehension. These results could imply a high correlation between participants’ scores on the vocabulary knowledge with scores on their receptive performance. Oian (1998) refined the theoretical frameworks of Richard’s (1976) and Nation’s (1990) to clarify the vital components of vocabulary depth including pronunciation and spelling, morphological properties, syntactic properties, meaning, register, and frequency as follows. Firstly, phonetically and phonologically, to be familiar with phonemes and their combination in words meant the ability to master the pronunciation of words. The concept of places of articulation, manners of articulation, the permissible combinations of phonetic inventory, and supra-segmental factors were all involved in this domain. The pronunciation of a word reflected its approximate spelling. The combination of phonemes was rule-governed, and it could not violate the phonotactic constraints. Secondly, morphology was to explore the formation of a word. The concept relative to word root, derivational and inflectional morphemes, and part of speech all belonged to morphological properties. Besides, the word coinages such as compounds, abbreviations, acronyms, blending, and conversion were related to the derivational combination of a single word. Thirdly, a syntax domain was to discuss the internal structure of a sentence including word’s collectability, its possible position in a sentence, and its syntagmatic relations with other words in a given context, so the concept of lexical constituent and grammatical category were the main focus. Fourthly, the concept of word meaning contains both semantic and pragmatic knowledge. In the semantic aspect, the meaning of a word and words’ combination were discussed through componential semantics, lexical semantics, and sentential semantics. For example, the concept of polysemy, synonym and antonym were categorized in lexical semantics, while in the pragmatic aspect, the focus was on how to appropriately use a word with respect to its appearing context, which could be discussed from both a linguistic context and situational context. Fifthly, register and discourse features were to discuss the social and regional differences of language use and the application of a word. Hence, the social appropriateness of using a word was the main focus in this aspect. Finally, the concept of word frequency in Ming-Ju Alan Ho, Hsin-Yi Lien 81a language was to analyze the use of common and uncommon words in given contexts. That is, it was to concern the popularity of given words. To sum up, we could know that vocabulary can be examined from micro to macro continuum. When we used a word, we exercised our knowledge of each aspect to reach a particular purpose. Furthermore, an examination of the theoretical foundations mentioned enables us to recognize that the dimension of vocabulary was multifaceted, and that each dimension was closely interrelated.

Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge

Vocabulary depth can be defined as how well a learner knows a word. Comparing with vocabulary breadth, we view vocabulary depth as the quality of words rather than quantity. Qian (1999) further stated that “the depth dimension should cover such components as pronunciation,spelling, meaning, register, frequency, and morphological, syntactic, and collocational properties”. Among these components, meaning, such as synonymy and polysemy, and collocation are two important variables. As mentioned above, the depth of vocabulary knowledge can be regarded as the combination of interrelated multi-knowledge. Moreover, the importance of depth of vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension has been confirmed by many L1 researchers (Anderson & Freebody,1981; Mezynski, 1983). However, in L2 research, only few studies recognize the importance of vocabulary depth (Read, 1990, 1998; Qian,1998, 1999, 2002). To test learners’ knowledge of a given word, some researchers had developed a scale to assess learner’s multi-dimension knowledge of a word (Dale, 1965; Qian, 1998; Read, 1990; Wesche& Paribakht, 1996). Read (1990) developed a measure to assess learner’s vocabulary depth in terms of a format of developed word association, known as Word-Associate Test (WAT). In this test, the design of test items is primarily based on semantic relationship with a target word(nouns, adjectives, or verbs) including the paradigmatic (synonym), syntagmatic (collocation) and analytic (meaning association) pairs. Qian(1998) refined Read’s design and develop the Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge Measure (DVKM) to assess the learner’s depth of vocabulary

Purpose of the Study

Vocabulary knowledge has been regarded as an important aspect in foreign language learning, and a number of researchers have explored vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. However, research on the depth of EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension is limited. Thus, the present study attempts to   investigate EFL learners with more depth of vocabulary knowledge that should be highlighted with an emphasis on both synonyms and collocations.

Objectives

1. To study the correlation of participants’ performance on the depth of vocabulary knowledge measure and the reading comprehension test  

2. To study the paradigmatic knowledge (synonym) or syntagmatic knowledge (lexical collocation) of participants

3To study the better predictive power on reading comprehension test performance.

4. To study the participants’ reading speed correlation to their depth of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension.

5. To study the significant differences on the performance of the participants on the depth of vocabulary knowledge measure.

Methodology

.The aim of the study was to investigate participant’s scores on the depth of vocabulary knowledge measure (DVKM) and a reading comprehension test (RCT) to know how learners’ depth of vocabulary knowledge correlates to their reading comprehension, the correlation between learner’s reading speed and their reading comprehension, and the comparison of the high and low achievers’ performance. The present study adopts descriptive survey design to develop depth knowledge measure to assess learners’ vocabulary depth

Participants

180 English-major undergraduates at different colleges of Odisha were investigated by employing qualitative research method in the present study. They have learned English for at least 6 years before participating in this study. All of them have academic training in English in college for three months.

Instruments

The present study employed three instruments including one depth of vocabulary knowledge (DVK) measure, one reading comprehension test, and one questionnaire.

Questionnaire

A twenty-item questionnaire was administered to investigate participants’ background about English learning, and to elicit their attitudes toward English lexical learning, vocabulary knowledge, reading, and reading speed.

The results of the participants’ performance on the two tests, the correlation between two tests, and the results of comparison between high and low achievers on the tests were presented and discussed toanswer the research questions in the present study.

The Correlation of Participants’ Performances

The study shows the participants’ overall performances on the depth of vocabulary knowledge measure (DVKM) and the reading comprehension test (RCT)

TABLE

Descriptive statistics of participants’ performance in DVKM and RCT

Test	Valid	MPS	Mean	SD	Min Score	Max Score	Reliability
DVKM	180	150	87.02	9.83	123	54	0.84
RCT	180	50	19.08	4.51	29	21	0.73

Note: DVKM: Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge Measure; RCT: Reading

Comprehension Test; MPS: Maximum possible score. Numbers in the parentheses

stand for the ratio of correctness.

The results of the participants’ performance on the two tests, the correlation between two tests, and the results of comparison between high and low achievers on the tests were presented and discussed to answer the research questions in the present study. Table 1 shows the participants’ overall performances on the depth

of vocabulary knowledge measure (DVKM) and the reading comprehension test (RCT). The alpha coefficient in Table revealed the reliability of the two test (DVKM). The participants’ performances (ratio of correctness) on DVKM and RCT were 62% and 55%. By running the paired sample t-test, the result indicated that their difference was significant (p < 0.01), but how they were correlated with one another still needs to be further investigated.

The statistics report the correlation between learners ‘depth of vocabulary knowledge and their reading comprehension. A significant and positive correlation was found between participants’ depth of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension This was in agreement with previous findings which showed that learners’ DVK was a good indicator in predicting reading comprehension test performance. Furthermore, the researcher thinks that the better depth of vocabulary knowledge the learners have (such as synonym and collocation), the better their reading comprehension is (Strongly Agree = 50%; Agree = 47%) revealed that most of the participants believed that in order to enhance one’s reading comprehension, it was necessary to strengthen their DVK.

Paradigmatic Knowledge vs  Syntagmatic Knowledge

The correlations between synonyms with reading comprehension and collocations with reading comprehension (RC) revealed that the mean scores of synonym and collocation were 51.81 and 47.49 respectively. The correlation between the participants’ performance on synonyms with reading comprehension and also the correlation between participants’ performances on collocations and reading comprehension were positive and significant, with slight differences(Synonym: r = 0.462, p < 0.01; Collocation: r = 0.45, p < 0.01).In this trend, we might say that participants’ synonym and collocational knowledge should play a similar role to predict their performance on reading comprehension.

Correlations Between RS With DVK And Between RS With RC

A larger value in the reading speed (time) meant that the participants took longer to complete the reading comprehension test. Correlations between depth of vocabulary knowledge (DVK) and reading comprehension (RC) with the reading speed (RS) of participants are studied that shows the significant (p < 0.01) negative correlation between and RS (r = -0.333) and between DVK and RS (r = 0.297) indicated that a competent reader tended to read faster and had better DVK. These results suggested that reading speed could be a possible indicator in evaluating reading comprehension ability.

Findings

The findings in the present study could be summarized as follows. Firstly, a difference was found between participant’s performance on both the DVKM and RCT. Based on participants ‘scores, the correlation between their’ DVK and RC was investigated and a significantly positive correlation established (DVKM with RC. This was in line with previous research indicating that learners with insufficient vocabulary knowledge may lead to a poor reading comprehension ability due to their inability to transfer reading skills or background knowledge to understand the texts In the second research question, the correlation of participants’ performance on synonym and collocation with reading comprehension was investigated. Although the results showed that participants’ performance on synonyms was slightly higher than their performance on collocations, their correlations with reading comprehension were similar. Such result showed us that both synonym and collocations are equally important for reading comprehension. The knowledge of synonym is the familiarity of the similarity of a word’s semantic features, while collocation knowledge contains lexical chunks and ready-made units which could assist readers to understand and interpret texts more precisely and efficiently. As the result indicated, learners with better DVK were better able to comprehend the texts. In the third research question, the correlations of participants’ reading speed (RS) with their DVK and RC were investigated. The result showed that both correlations were significant and negative. Such a finding indicated that participants with better DVK and RC would have better reading speed. As it is found, language ability would determine one’s reading comprehension ability with efficient readers tending to read faster than weaker readers. This would indicate that participants’ DVK played not only a crucial role in influencing their reading comprehension but suggested that learners with better collocation knowledge were better able to incorporate other forms of knowledge to comprehend written texts.

Conclusion

In Odisha, some English teachers who used traditional teaching methods such as Grammar-translation method or Audio-lingual method still encourage their learners to learn English vocabulary by memorizing its translational equivalents. In other words, vocabulary memorization in English education is still prevailing in Odisha. Although such ways of English teaching may broaden learners’ vocabulary size, it may not improve their vocabulary depth a lot. A word normally appears in context rather than in isolation, and as such can take on different semantic interpretations in different contexts. The concept of depth of vocabulary knowledge thus should be emphasized and within emphasis on understanding both synonyms and collocations Learners at the tertiary level in Odisha have to read a lot of academic textbooks written in English. Reading those textbooks for some of them could be afflictive because there are too many unknown words. or lexical combinations disturbing their understanding. In order to strengthen learners’ overall vocabulary knowledge, teachers can instruct their learners how to examine a word from different linguistic perspectives such as the spelling, the pronunciation, the word formation, and the lexical combination. As for the learners, they have to realize that learning word requires more than mere memorization of the translational equivalent. Learners can improve their receptive performance by constructing quantity of ready-made lexical chunks and familiarizing themselves with the multidimensional knowledge of a word with a consequent improvement in comprehension and reading speed. In addition, if the multiple word features can be taught to learners, their DVK can be improved and their collocational errors in speaking can be reduced, thereby improving productive performance.

There are some limitations in the present study which can be outlined. Firstly, the participants in the present study are all English majors and consequently the research finding may not be applicable to other academic disciplines. Secondly, the number of participants is limited and all of them are freshmen, so the findings of the present study may not be generalized to all the undergraduates in Odisha. Thirdly, as indicated in the literature review, a word can be examined from different aspects. In the current study, only the knowledge of synonyms and collocations is examined in the depth of vocabulary knowledge measure (DVKM). Other linguistic aspects such as lexical spelling, its morphological properties, or its appropriateness in a given context are ignored and the study result may not represent the overall DVK of a learner. Fourthly, the collocational knowledge examined in the present study is only adjective + noun pair, and this may be insufficient to truly reflect learners’ overall collocational competence, because collocations can be examined through lexical and grammatical perspectives and each of them can be divided into many types. Fifthly, because vocabulary knowledge is the combination of the vocabulary breadth and the vocabulary depth, by only examining the vocabulary depth the result still cannot tell how well a learner knows a word solidly and the connection between vocabulary breadth and vocabulary depth will be lost. Last but not least, better vocabulary knowledge may help readers comprehend better; however, extensive reading may also shape one’s vocabulary knowledge. In the present study, the rationale only focused on the importance of lexis but not context. Some learners are explicit-oriented while others prefer implicit way of learning. The results of this study thus cannot be generalized to all possible learners. To eliminate these limitations, the following suggestions are provided for future research.

Suggestions for future research

In order to make an extension to similar research, later researchers can take different disciplines and increase the sample population. It will be of particular interest to determine whether differences exist in DVK and RC among English major students and those in other fields. Furthermore, the design for future research should combine other instruments, such as the instruments for measuring grammatical knowledge or morphological knowledge, which involve a great number of aspects of vocabulary in conjunction with the DVKM in order to make cross comparisons and increase validity and reliability of the results. Thirdly, the collocational knowledge should be examined independently because of its complexity. Future research can analyze which collocational type is more difficult to be understood in reading texts. Fifthly, because vocabulary knowledge is the combination of vocabulary breadth and vocabulary depth, it is worthwhile to apply these two theoretical frameworks together and examine their correlation both with each other and with other language skills. Lastly, to eliminate the limitation of possible ways to learn vocabulary, the following researchers might consider bilateral investigation to observe which way of learning is more effective and efficient to learners. To sum up, the correlation between participants’ DVK and their RC was significant indicating that by improving participants’ overall vocabulary knowledge (in particular vocabulary depth), reading comprehension would also be improved. Students at the tertiary level may comprehend better and read faster if their vocabulary knowledge can be improved. It is hoped that this finding can draw both English teachers and learners’ attention on depth of vocabulary knowledge.

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