The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension among Moroccan EFL learners
A Text Analysis Worksheet
Nouri, N., & Zerhouni, B. (2016). The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and
reading comprehension among Moroccan EFL learners. IOSR Journal of
Humanities And Social Science, 21(10), 19-26.
1. Read the citation in the box and answer the following questions:
a) What is the title of this text? _________________________
b) When was this text written? _________________________
c) Who was it written by? _____________________________
d) Where was the text published? _______________________
e) What is the Volume and issue number of the text? _______
f) How many pages is the text? ________________________
g) On what pages of the journal was this text published? _____
2. Read the abstract part of the text, look
at the chart below and tick the pieces of
information we learn from the abstract
about this text? The first question was
done as an example,
Pieces of information revealed
in the abstract part
Yes No
If yes, what are they?
The full names and the academic
affiliations of the authors
The context of the study
X
Nadia Nouri and Badia Zerhouni
Mohamed V University, Morocco
The names of the participants to the
study
The purpose of the study
What is meant by the two dimensions
of vocabulary knowledge
The number of the participants, their
field of study and where they study
The reasons why the participants
study EFL
What the instruments to measure are
The questions in the measuring
instruments
The findings
The reason why some key words are
included
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The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension among Moroccan EFL learners
A Text Analysis Worksheet
3. With the given words in the box, fill in the blanks below in the following text which explains the
context and the rhetorical purposes of this text.
subject
experts
conducted
depth
comprehension
Moroccan
article.
audience
size
investigate
Context and rhetorical purposes
This 1. __________is written by two university professors. This type of articles would be written by those
who are 2. ______________ in their fields, like researchers, scientists, or university professors. The target 3.
______________ for the article appears to be other researchers in the field or college and university students
taking a course on the 4. ______________the authors have covered in the report. The main aim of this article
was to 5. _____________ the effects second language learners’ vocabulary 6. ___________ (i.e., how many
words they know) and vocabulary 7. ___________ (i.e., how well they know different uses of a word) may
have on their reading 8. _______________. To answer this question, the researchers 9. _____________ three
tests with 10. ____________ college students using a vocabulary size test, a vocabulary depth test, and a
reading comprehension test.
4. Content (What is the main idea of this text? Include a summary of the text)
The following is an example of the content of this text with mistakes. Correct them referring back to the original
text.
Nouri and Zerhouni (2014) investigated the impact of vocabulary size, vocabulary depth, on reading
comprehension. The research involved 23 Moroccan, first-year college students with upperintermediate proficiency in English. The data were collected using a vocabulary size test (VST), a
vocabulary depth task (VDT), and a reading comprehension (RC) task. The results of the study
supported a strong relationship between VS and VD, a moderate association between VS and RC,
while a weak correlation between VD and RC. Their study supported the impact of vocabulary depth
on the reading comprehension as compared to the impact of vocabulary size on reading
comprehension.
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The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension among Moroccan EFL learners
A Text Analysis Worksheet
5. Layout and organization (Analyze the way the text is presented and organized, i.e. examining headings,
bullets, pictures etc.)
The text is organized in a structured manner following the specific sections with section headings followed by
details for each heading. It has the following major sections.
Below are the sections of the article in a jammed order- put them in order (1-7).
Sections of the article
Introduction
Implications and Conclusion
Abstract:
Findings
Methods
Literature Review
Results
6.
Order
Match the sections of a journal article with their content.
Sections of the article
1. Abstract:
2. Introduction
3. 3) Literature Review
4. Methods
5. Findings
Content
A. This section is further divided in four sections, which
include: (a) design, (b) participants, (c) instruments, and(d)
analysis. The main purpose of this section is to provide
details about the materials and procedures used in
conducting the study.
B. This section provides a brief overview of the research and
findings of the study.
C. In this section, results of the study are compared with other
studies. The authors’ report that their findings support the
earlier findings by Laufer (1992), while these do not
support Vermeer (2001).
D. These report findings of the study described in the summary
section above.
E. The researchers discuss the importance their findings and
emphasis the need for a greater focus on this aspect in
teaching.
6. Results
F. The authors describe previous research on the effects of
vocabulary size and depth on reading comprehension in
various contexts. This section reports varying impact of
vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension and
emphasizes the need for further research on the topic. This
section ends with the research questions, the authors would
like to investigate in their study.
7. Implications and
Conclusion
G. This section discusses the importance of vocabulary
knowledge and role of reading in the Moroccan university
context. It also defines the concepts of vocabulary size and
depth and discusses methods for measuring them.
\
7. Language – (Analyze the way language is used, i.e. by examining personal pronouns, reporting verbs etc.)
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The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension among Moroccan EFL learners
A Text Analysis Worksheet
After an introduction as below, you will provide examples of these language/linguistic features of the text.
The language use is formal and a third person account is used for reporting the study. The personal pronouns
are missing and reporting verbs are frequently used as action verbs. The paper uses passive construction and
technical terms and cites several sources while providing context for the study or supporting the claims made
in the paper. Some examples are provided below.
Third person use
Example:
Where?
1) The present study aims to examine . . . (Abstract)
Add 2 more examples of 3rd person use/ indicate where you read them, as in the example.
2) ________________________________________________
3) ________________________________________________
Reporting verbs – (to revise some academic reporting verbs Example:
Where?
1) The present study aims to examine . . . (Abstract)
Add 2 more examples of reporting verbs and where you read them, as in the example.
2) ____________________________________________________
3) ___________________________________________________
Passive construction
Example:
Where?
1. Vocabulary size is conceptualized . . .(Instruments)
Add 2 more examples of passive construction and where you read them, as in the example.
2) ____________________________________________________
3) ____________________________________________________
Technical Terms (requires readers to have field knowledge to understand them)
Example:
1) EFL (English as a Foreign Language)
Add 2 more examples of technical terms.
2) _______________________________
3) _______________________________
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