Influence of Lexical and Syntactic Knowledge on L2 Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Among the various components of reading comprehension, lexical and syntactic knowledge have been widely studied but conflicting perspectives remain on their respective contributions to reading comprehension. The current study aims to address this gap by investigating the contribution of these two components to L2 reading comprehension among Pakistani ESL learners, focusing on whether these contributions differ between learners with high and low reading proficiency. By employing the Component-Skills Approach developed by Carr and Levy (1990) the current study focuses on identifying individual differences in L2 reading comprehension. The study involved 100 gender-balanced undergraduate students enrolled in randomly selected departments of the University of Sargodha and utilized four tests for data collection that helped determine the participants’ lexical breadth, depth, syntactic knowledge and L2 reading comprehension. The results indicated that for high-proficiency learners, syntactic knowledge was the stronger predictor, followed by lexical depth and breadth. For low-proficiency learners, a similar pattern was observed, with syntactic knowledge showing the strongest predictive power. The results of the current study have important implications for ESL teaching strategies, highlighting the need to focus on both syntax and vocabulary development to enhance L2 reading comprehension among Pakistani learners.