EFL STUDENTS’ USE OF LEXICAL INFERENCING STRATEGIES AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH INFERENTIAL SUCCESS

Abstract

This study examines EFL students’ use of strategies in lexical inferencing while reading an English text and its relationship with inferential success. A reading proficiency test was given to participants to classify them into two groups of high-proficiency and low-proficiency. Data consists of think-aloud protocols of 20 second-year English-majored students of Mekong University while they inferred the meaning of unknown words in a written text. Results reveal that students used a variety of strategies for guessing unknown words, but not all students used all strategies in this performance. The findings also indicate that both high-proficiency and low-proficiency learners made a small number of successful guesses in their performances. Overall successful lexical inference showed no relationship with the students' use of strategies. This study can inspire teachers, textbook writers, and students to attend more to different strategies and lexical inference.