Effects of Lexical Competence on the Reading and Writing Ability of Grade 11 Science Students at Azezo High School, Gondar

Abstract

The study investigated effects of lexical competence on students’ reading and writing ability through ex post facto research design. From eight sections, two randomly selected classes
of 119 students were involved in the study. Lexical competence was measured through testing
the size, depth and productive dimensions of vocabulary knowledge using VLT, WAT and vocabprofiler instruments respectively. Reading and writing abilities were measured using TOEFL, and above-average and below-average reading /writing ability groups were created based
on sample means. Group difference on vocabulary scores was tested using MANOVA. The findings showed that above-average readers scored significantly higher than below average readers
on the size and depth dimensions, depth accounting for much of the variance. Above-average
writers also scored significantly higher than below average writers, much of the difference being accounted for by the productive dimension. The findings suggest that learners’ reading and
writing performance difference is largely attributed to the variance of their lexical competence.