Lexical Inferencing Strategies of Turkish EFL Learners

Abstract

Reading is a process which contributes to success in learning a foreign language and good language learners are considered to be good readers (Bialystok, 1983). According to Paribakht and Wesche (1999), a good reader can guess the meanings of some unfamiliar words in a text, and there is a strong relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Reading ability of second/foreign language learners has been widely investigated and it has been found that they understand more and make more guesses if they participate actively in the reading process by applying strategies. Hosenfeld (1981) proposed the term “reading strategies” that students must utilize in order to comprehend reading passages, and she noted 20 effective reading strategies “an efficient reader reads to identify meaning rather than words, takes chances in order to identify meaning, considers illustrations, evaluates guesses, uses a variety of types of context clues, and follows through with proposed solutions” (cited in Barnett, 1988:110).

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