Journal of English Language

Teaching and Learning

Year53 No. 222

The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of

Vocabulary Knowledge and Reading Comprehension among

Iranian EFL Learners By:
Dr. Saeed Mehrpour
Assistant Professor of Shiraz University
Dr.Seyyed Ayatollah Razmjoo
Assistant Professor of Shiraz University
Parvaneh Kian
M.A Holder of Shiraz University

Abstract
The current study is an attempt to investigate the particular role learners'
vocabulary knowledge plays in their reading comprehension performance. It
intends to determine whether breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge are
related to EFL learners' reading comprehension, and to investigate which one
of these variables, that is, depth or breadth of vocabulary knowledge, makes a
more important contribution to L2 reading comprehension. It also attempts to
investigate whether there is a relationship between these two vocabulary
knowledge dimensions, that is, depth and breadth. Finally, the study tries to
find out whether gender has any effect on learners' reading comprehension
and vocabulary knowledge. The participants of the study were sixty (30 male
and 30 female) EFL learners who were chosen from among five language
teaching institutes in Shiraz based on available sampling. To collect the
relevant data, two tests measuring breadth and depth of vocabulary
knowledge were administered to all participants. They also received a reading
comprehension test in which they were asked to read the passages and answer
some multiple choice questions. The results obtained from the analysis of the
data indicated that while both depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge
play an important role in EFL learners' reading comprehension performance,
depth of vocabulary knowledge makes a more important contribution. The
results further revealed that depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge are
positively correlated, that is, those learners who had large vocabulary size
had a deeper knowledge of the words, too. It was also found that gender had
no significant impact on learners' reading comprehension performance and
vocabulary knowledge.
KeyWords: Vocabulary Depth; Vocabulary Breadth; Reading
Comprehension; Vocabulary.

90/3/10:‫ ﺗﺄﯾﯿﺪ ﻧﻬﺎﯾﯽ‬89/8/3 :‫ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ وﺻﻮل‬-

 98 Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning.No.222,Year,53/Autumn-Winter 2011

1. Introduction
English as an International language is used by people throughout
the world for different purposes such as communicating to other
people from different countries and providing a means for exchanging
knowledge. From among the three major components of language,
namely, sounds, grammar, and vocabulary, knowledge of the words,
as the building blocks of language has a very crucial role. In fact,
without the recognition of the meaning of the words, it would be
impossible to either produce or perceive the language. Although
students may successfully decode and read fluently, knowing the
meanings of words contained in a text is critical to reading
comprehension.
The significant role of vocabulary knowledge in reading
comprehension has been well recognized in first language (L1) studies
and this has appeared to be the case in second language (L2) settings
as well. Researchers have suggested several models to describe the
relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading
comprehension. According to Hu and Nation (2000), the factors
involved in these models include language knowledge (of which
vocabulary knowledge is a part), knowledge of the world (sometimes
called background knowledge) and skill in language use (of which
reading comprehension is one result).
Anderson and Freebody (1981) presented a model for initial
understanding of the strong relationship between vocabulary
knowledge and comprehension in the form of three hypotheses: the
instrumentalist hypothesis, the aptitude hypothesis and the knowledge
hypothesis.
The instrumentalist hypothesis is the commonsense model of the
vocabulary–reading comprehension connection. This model suggests
that knowing more words makes one a better reader; therefore, to
improve comprehension, vocabulary words should be taught. Some
findings support the instrumentalist model, but we cannot conclude
that vocabulary instruction will lead to full comprehension. Although
the relationship between vocabulary and comprehension of a text is
clear, the instrumentalist hypotheses can not stand alone; it is only one
aspect of the vocabulary–reading comprehension relationship.
The second hypothesis is the knowledge hypothesis which
emphasizes the influence of the readers’ background knowledge on
comprehension. It is not only the knowledge of the meaning of words
that causes a reader to comprehend a text, but also the knowledge of
the concepts that the words represent. The knowledge hypothesis
proposes a link between knowledge and comprehension, but
 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary… 99

vocabulary knowledge is only part of the knowledge structure that

plays a role in reading comprehension.
The aptitude hypothesis is the third theory presented in the
Anderson and Freebody's (1981) framework. This theory suggests that
the relationship between vocabulary and comprehension is affected by
a third factor; a general underlying verbal aptitude. According to this
model, individuals who have higher verbal abilities will learn new
words more easily, possess larger vocabularies and will be better at
understanding written texts than those who have lower verbal abilities.
Mezynski (1983) suggests a fourth view, which is the access view
of the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and language use.
In this model like the instrumentalist view, vocabulary is seen as
having a causal relationship with comprehension provided that the
reader accesses new words quickly and efficiently. Access can be
improved through practice.
A number of studies in both L1 and L2 have demonstrated that
vocabulary knowledge is one of the best predictors of reading ability
and the ability to acquire new information from texts (Anderson,
2000; Nation, 2001; Qian, 2002; Read, 2000). Grabe and Stroller
(2001) emphasize the role of large vocabulary knowledge in reading
comprehension. Similarly, Stahl (2003) says that the relationship
between vocabulary and reading comprehension is a “robust” one and
that vocabulary knowledge has consistently been the “foremost
predictor of a text’s difficulty” (p.241).
But what do we mean by the word “knowledge”? As a matter of
fact, it is difficult to reach a consensus on what is involved in word
knowledge and how to measure vocabulary knowledge because of the
complexity of this construct. Nation (1990) offered eight aspects of
word knowledge: (1) the spoken form of a word, (2) the written form
of the word, (3) the grammatical behavior of the word, (4) the
collocation behavior of the word, (5) the frequency of the word, (6)
the stylistic register constraints of the word, (7) the conceptual
meaning of the word, and (8) the associations the word has with other
related words.
Richards (1976) made several assumptions on word knowledge
which included knowledge of word meanings, semantic, usage,
constraints, its morphology, associations, and contextual meaning.
Chappelle (1998) argues that a trait definition of vocabulary should
contain four dimensions: (1) vocabulary size; (2) knowledge of word
characteristics; (3) lexicon organization; and (4) process of lexical
access. Henriksen (1999) suggests that lexical competence should
contain three dimensions: (1) precision of knowledge; (2) depth of
 100 Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning.No.222,Year,53/Autumn-Winter 2011

knowledge; and (3) receptive and productive knowledge. Qian’s

(2002) recent framework proposes that vocabulary knowledge
comprises four intrinsically connected dimensions: (1) vocabulary
size, which refers to the number of words of which a learner has at
least some superficial knowledge of meaning; (2) depth of vocabulary
knowledge, which includes all lexical characteristics, such as
phonemic, graphemic, morphemic, syntactic, semantic, collocational,
and phraseological properties, as well as frequency and register; (3)
lexical organization, which refers to the storage, connection, and
representation of words in the mental lexicon of a learner; and (4)
automaticity of receptive-productive knowledge, which refers to all
the fundamental processes to access the word knowledge for both
receptive and productive purposes, including phonological and
orthographic encoding and decoding, access to structural and semantic
features from the mental lexicon, lexical-semantic integration and
representation, and morphological parsing and composing.
There are still researchers who have a more similar view about
vocabulary knowledge. For instance, Read (2000), Qian (2002) and
Vermeer (2001) considere vocabulary knowledge as consisting of two
dimensions of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge. Although
these constructs have been defined in different ways (e.g., Nassaji,
2004; Qian, 2002; Zareva, 2005), here breadth of vocabulary
knowledge indicates a person’s vocabulary size, or approximately
how many words one knows. In contrast, the depth of vocabulary
knowledge refers to the quality of a person’s knowledge of a word –
how well someone knows a specific word or set of words.
The present study is motivated by the study of Qian and Schedl
(2004), who found that depth of vocabulary knowledge and TOEFL
vocabulary had the same difficulty level and both had similar
relationships with reading comprehension tests. Thus, of particular
interest is finding out whether the predictive power of Depth of
Vocabulary Knowledge Test (DVKT) and the size of vocabulary
knowledge test in reading comprehension is the same in other EFL
and ESL contexts. Furthermore, this study aims to investigate the
relationship between these two aspects of vocabulary knowledge,
namely depth and breadth, with gender.

1.1. Statement of the problem

Over the last ten to fifteen years, vocabulary has been considered
as a component of language proficiency, both in L1 and L2 language
acquisition. Knowledge of words is now considered the most
important factor in language proficiency and school success, partly
 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary… 101

because of its close relation with text comprehension (Bernhardt,

2005). Without knowledge of words, understanding sentences or texts
is not possible. Based on several researches, it has been realized that
knowledge of words is multidimensional and includes various types of
knowledge. Thus, researchers such as Greidanus and Nienhuis (2001),
Read (2000), Vermmer (2001) and Wolter (2001) have tended to view
vocabulary knowledge as consisting of two dimensions of breadth
(how many words are known) and depth (how well is a word known).
The breadth of a learner’s word knowledge (also referred to as
vocabulary size) is the number of words with which the individual is
familiar to some extent. Depth of vocabulary refers to how much
learners know about the meanings of the words they are familiar with,
along with the connections that exist among the word meanings they
know.
Some researchers (Schmitt & Meara, 1997; Wesche & Paribakht,
1996) considered measuring breadth to have a limited value because it
ignores the fact that words can be known to a greater or lesser extent.
However, too little is known about the relationship between these
various aspects of word knowledge to justify such a qualification. In
the above mentioned researchers’ view, there is much overlap between
breadth and depth of word knowledge, and thus there should be a
strong relationship between breadth and depth measures. Both are
strongly related because vocabulary growth shows a strong
developmental stability, as it is related to text comprehension.
Therefore, the present study attempts to explore the relationship
between these two aspects of vocabulary knowledge and reading
comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. Furthermore, it tries to find
out whether gender, as a variable has any relationship with students’
vocabulary knowledge.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Vocabulary Knowledge and Reading Comprehension

With regard to the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and
reading comprehension, Koda’s (1989) study on 24 college students
learning Japanese as a foreign language found equally strong
correlations between vocabulary knowledge and reading
comprehension.
Gelderen et al. (2004) administered tests of English vocabulary
knowledge and reading comprehension to 397 Dutch students from
Grade 8 to Grade 10 in secondary education and found a correlation of
.63.
 102 Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning.No.222,Year,53/Autumn-Winter 2011

Snow (2002) found that the strength of the relationship between a

kindergarten vocabulary measure and reading comprehension
increased substantially as the children advanced in grade level. The
correlations for first graders, fourth graders, and seventh graders were
.45, .62, and .69, respectively.
Recently, several researchers, educators, and teachers have been
eager to know the extent to which reading comprehension depends on
vocabulary knowledge. Huang (1999) measured the vocabulary size of
university students and their reading comprehension ability by
considering the effects of vocabulary knowledge and content
knowledge on reading comprehension. The subjects were 246
university juniors who were non-English majors. They took Nation’s
(1990) Vocabulary Levels Test, an English passage, a recall protocol,
and the Inventory of Content Knowledge and Interest Questionnaire.
The results show that university students' comprehension of any
English text depends on vocabulary knowledge and content
knowledge, but their comprehension depends more on vocabulary
knowledge than on content knowledge. He also found that in
Taiwanese students’ reading comprehension scores 69% of the
variance was explained by their vocabulary knowledge. Clearly, L2
reading comprehension depends strongly on vocabulary knowledge.
Early factor analytic studies considered vocabulary knowledge as
one of the major factors in reading comprehension (Davis, 1944;
Spearritt, 1972). For example, Davis factor analyzed tests of nine
skills underlying reading comprehension and found two major factors:
word knowledge and reasoning. These two factors accounted for 89%
of the variance in reading comprehension. Spearritt (1972) reanalyzed
Davis’s (1944) data and found four main factors: word knowledge,
drawing inferences from the content, following the structure of the
passage, and recognizing a writer’s intent and tone. Word knowledge
was the best differentiated of these four skills.
Guo (2006) examined the relationship among vocabulary
knowledge, syntactic awareness and reading comprehension of 155
English speaking undergraduate and graduate students. Factor analysis
show that syntactic awareness is highly correlated with reading
comprehension; there is strong positive correlation between
vocabulary knowledge and syntactic awareness; and the same high
correlation holds for the relationship between syntactic awareness and
reading comprehension. Structural equation modeling indicates that
syntactic awareness directly affects reading comprehension, and
indirectly influences reading comprehension via vocabulary
knowledge.
 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary… 103

Shiotsu and Weir (2007) examined the relative contribution of

knowledge of syntax and knowledge of vocabulary to L2 reading.
Their pilot study took place in two different contexts: a heterogeneous
population studying at the tertiary level in the UK and a homogenous
undergraduate group in Japan. These two studies were followed by a
larger main study, again involving a homogeneous Japanese
undergraduate population. In contrast with previous findings in the
literature, all three studies support the relative superiority of syntactic
knowledge over vocabulary knowledge in predicting performance on a
reading comprehension test.

2.2. Vocabulary Size and Reading Comprehension

Stahl (2003) emphasizes that studies from readability formulae
have “found that the most important factor in determining the
difficulty of a text is the difficulty of the words’ (p. 246). Vocabulary
size is thus a reliable predictor of reading comprehension.
Grabe (1991) asserts that one of the most important areas of
research for reading comprehension is research in vocabulary
development. Grabe and Stroller (2001) emphasize the role of large
vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension. They stress that
students need to recognize a large number of words to become fluent
readers. They advised teachers to help students better understand the
texts by explicitly teaching the key words of the text to be read in
class.
In L2 research, a number of studies have investigated the
relationship between vocabulary size and academic reading
comprehension. Laufer's (1992) study was done on 92 first-year
university students whose native language was either Hebrew or
Arabic. He used two tests of vocabulary, namely, the Vocabulary
Levels Test (Nation, 1983) and Eurocentric Vocabulary Test (Meara &
Jones,1989) which required the testees to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to indicate
whether they knew the meaning of a target word. Reading
comprehension was measured by two standardized reading tests: the
reading comprehension section of Examen Hoger Algermeen Vortgzet
Onderwijs, consisting of two texts with 20 multiple-choice
comprehension items, and an English sub-test of the Israel university
psychometric entrance test, comprising 40 multiple-choice questions.
The correlation between the scores on the Vocabulary Levels Test and
the reading comprehension test was .50 (P<.0001) and that between
the scores on a Eurocentres Vocabulary Test on reading
comprehension was .75 (p< .0001).
 104 Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning.No.222,Year,53/Autumn-Winter 2011

In another study done by Laufer (1996), he investigated the

relationship between the vocabulary knowledge and reading
comprehension of 80 first-year university students of similar L1
backgrounds in Israel. He reported the correlation of .71 (p< .0001)
between students’ scores on reading comprehension and on the
Vocabulary Levels Test.
Qian (1999) found stronger correlations in his study of 44 Korean
speakers and 33 Chinese speakers using version A of the VLT and the
Reading Comprehension section from the TOEFL. The correlation
between the two tests was .78. Beglar (1999) conducted an almost
identical study to find the relationship between vocabulary size and
reading comprehension. He used four versions of the 2,000 word level
from the VLT for 496 Japanese high school students and four versions
of the UWL from the same test for another 464 students. He found
that scores on the Reading Comprehension subsection of the TOEFL
test correlated with scores on versions A and B of the 2,000 word
level at .66 and .62, respectively, and with scores on versions A and B
of the UWL section at .67 and .71, respectively.
Zhang and Annual (2008) explored the role of vocabulary in
reading comprehension. Thirty-seven secondary students of a school in
Singapore participated in this study. The Vocabulary Levels Tests
were used to measure students' vocabulary knowledge and some
different measures were used to test their reading comprehension and
summary abilities. Results suggest that students' vocabulary
knowledge at the 2,000-word (r= .423, p<.01) and at the 3,000-word
levels (r= .848, p<.01) correlated with their reading comprehension.
Hu-Hsueh-Chao and Nation (2000) tried to see what percentage
coverage of text is needed in reading for pleasure. The study examined
the effect of three densities of unknown vocabulary on two measures
of reading comprehension: a multiple-choice test and a cued written
recall test. In the case that 80% of the running words in the text were
familiar to the readers, no adequate comprehension on either of the
measures was obtained. Where 90% and 95% of the tokens in the text
were familiar to the readers, some gained adequate comprehension but
most did not. A simple regression analysis of the data showed a
predictable relationship between the density of unknown words and
degree of comprehension. It seems that for learners to gain unassisted
comprehension of a fiction text, around 98% coverage of vocabulary
is needed.
Zimmerman (2004) investigated the role of vocabulary size in
assessing learners from various L1 backgrounds and for institutional
placement. First, the vocabulary size of students from each language
 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary… 105

group was compared. Then, students’ vocabulary size scores were

correlated with their placement scores that evaluated reading, writing,
speaking, listening, and grammar. Finally, the vocabulary size of new
students was compared to those of students within the same
institutional placement level. The results showed that within the same
institutional placement levels, speakers of Spanish and Korean had
larger English vocabularies than speakers of Japanese and Chinese.
The correlation analysis revealed that vocabulary size correlated most
with speaking, and listening, followed by grammar, then reading and
writing. Finally, the cross-sectional analysis indicated that the
vocabulary size of newly placed students was generally larger than
that of continuing students.
In the behavioral sciences, a correlation of .50 is generally
regarded as an indication of a ‘large co-relational effect size’ (Cohen,
1988, p.80), or at least a ‘moderate positive relationship’ (Hamilton,
1990, p. 481) between any two variables considered. Following this
general rule, the above reports appear to indicate that there probably
exists a strong association between the learner’s breadth of vocabulary
knowledge and their reading comprehension levels. As a result, scores
on vocabulary size are capable of predicting performance on reading
tasks.

2.3. Vocabulary Depth and Reading Comprehension

Qian's (2002) study was designed to examine the role of depth and
breadth of vocabulary knowledge in reading for basic comprehension
in university-level academic settings and also to evaluate the utility
value of the Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge (DVK) test. This study
was done in the context of TOEFL research with a sample of 217
international students speaking 19 different native languages. Results
from this study supported Qian’s earlier findings that (1) scores on
depth of vocabulary knowledge were highly correlated with those of
basic reading comprehension (r= .77, p< .01) and (2) the DVK was a
reliable measure, which has contributed uniquely and significantly to
the assessment of reading performance. According to Qian (2002),
scores obtained from this instrument explained close to 60% of the
variance in the reading scores.
In a more recent study, Qian and Schedle (2004) empirically
evaluated an in-depth vocabulary knowledge measure to find out
whether it could be used as a basis to design appropriate and useful
item types for assessing test takers’ reading comprehension. The study
was done on 207 international students attending an ESL program in a
major Canadian University. The results showed that depth of
 106 Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning.No.222,Year,53/Autumn-Winter 2011

vocabulary knowledge and TOEFL had the same difficulty level and
both had similar relationships with reading comprehension tests. It
was also found that the new measure had a similar difficulty level
compared to existing TOEFL vocabulary measures, and also provided
a similar amount of prediction of ESL test takers’ reading
performance.

2.4. The relationship between Depth and Breadth of

Vocabulary Knowledge
Schmitt and Meara (1997) conducted a study to investigate the
relationship between depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge of
88 Japanese young adults. They reported that while the learners’
knowledge of suffix and word association were interrelated with their
vocabulary sizes at various levels, the correlations between word
association and vocabulary size were fairly high (r= .62, p< .50) for
productive knowledge and (r= .61, p<.05) for receptive knowledge. It
thus supports the hypothesis that breadth and depth are two
interconnected dimensions of vocabulary knowledge.
The division between vocabulary breadth and depth, however, is
not as distinct as it may seem on the surface. Qian (1999) came to a
similar conclusion after he administered the Vocabulary Levels Test
(VLT) and the Word Associates Format to 44 Korean speakers and 33
Chinese speakers. He found that the scores of the two tests were
closely and significantly correlated at .78 for the Korean speakers and
.82 for the Chinese speakers.
Qian's (2002) study was conducted in the context of Test of
English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) research to examine the roles
of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge in reading
comprehension and also to empirically evaluate a test which measures
three elements of the depth of vocabulary knowledge, namely,
synonymy, polysemy, and collocation. The results show that depth of
vocabulary knowledge is as important as that of vocabulary size in
predicting academic reading performance. The study also found that
scores on the three vocabulary measures are similarly useful in
predicting performance on the reading comprehension measure. The
research findings confirm the importance of the vocabulary factor in
reading assessment.

Vermeer (2001) indicates that it is not reasonable to suppose that

vocabulary size tests are less valuable than vocabulary depth tests,
because growth in both vocabulary breadth and depth are dependent
on frequency of input. She administered a breadth test and a depth test
 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary… 107

to 1,600 Dutch monolingual and bilingual 4- and 7-year olds and

found that the scores on the three different measures were
significantly correlated (r= .73, .83, and .93, p< .01). She explained
that “a deeper knowledge of words is the consequence of knowing
more words, or that, conversely, the more words someone knows, the
finer the networks and the deeper the word knowledge (p.230).”
Researchers usually distinguish between two aspects of an
individual’s word knowledge: breadth and depth. In addition to these
two factors, Tannenbaum et al. (2006) consider fluency in the study of
word knowledge. He aimed at finding out the relationships between
three dimensions of word knowledge and reading comprehension. The
study was carried out with a sample of 203 third-grade students.
Confirmatory factor analyses, structural equation modeling, and
hierarchical regression analyses show that a 2-factor model of breadth
and depth/fluency provides the best fit to the data. Breadth has a
stronger relationship to reading comprehension than depth/fluency
does; however, the two dimensions of word knowledge have
significant overlapping variance that contributes to the prediction of
reading comprehension.

2.5. Gender and Reading Comprehension

There are a few studies conducted to investigate the relationship
between gender and reading comprehension. Sallabas's (2008) study
aimed to determine the effect of student gender in the process of
reading comprehension and developing attitude towards reading. The
results of the study reveal that there is a big difference between the
two genders over reading comprehension. In fact, girls are better at
reading comprehension than boys. Also it is found that gender affects
attitude towards reading.
Al-Shumaimeri (2005) investigated the differences between Saudi
tertiary level male and female students of English as a foreign
language in the comprehension performance of gender-neutral texts.
One hundred and thirty two male and female university students
participated in this study. They were given two reading
comprehension tests on two different types of gender-neutral text
(familiar and unfamiliar). Findings reveal that content familiarity has a
facilitating effect on reading comprehension. Male students
significantly outperformed their female counterparts in both tests.
Pae's (2004) study examined the effect of gender on English
reading comprehension for Korean EFL (English as a Foreign
Language) learners. The gender effect was measured using a DIF
(Differential Item Functioning) methodology. Specifically, gender
 108 Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning.No.222,Year,53/Autumn-Winter 2011

DIF was investigated for a random sample of 14,000 Korean

examinees (7,000 males and 7,000 females) who took the English
subtest of the 1998 Korean National Entrance Exam for Colleges and
Universities. The results of the study indicate that items classified as
Mood/Impression/Tone tended to be easier for females, whereas items
classified as Logical Inference were more likely to favor males
regardless of item content. Further content analysis reveals that
passage content is not a reliable factor that predicts interaction
between gender and performance in reading comprehension, hence
suggesting that future studies about gender effect on second language
reading comprehension should consider item type as well as item
content.
Wei-Wei (2009) investigated the relationship between gender
differences and reading comprehension at secondary level in China.
He suggests females are more global and prefer guessing meaning
from context while males are more analytic and attend more to words.
In other words, women utilize more top-down strategies and men
more bottom-up strategies when reading a text. Females in the study
were better in practicing from top to bottom and from bottom to top in
their interaction with the reading passages. This involves the reader in
a text and his/her background knowledge at the same time.
Young and Oxford (1997) conducted a study with native English
speaking men and women (n = 23 males and 26 females) to examine
comprehension and strategies involved in reading two Spanish texts
and one English text. The reading passages were taken from the
textbooks used at the course levels of the participants. Text topics
were economics, the presence of foreign cultures in work, leisure, and
history. No significant differences by gender were reported with recall
scores for all text topics, and there were no self-reported differences
by gender in the familiarity ratings with passage topics or background
knowledge of any of the passages.
Brantmeier (2002) utilized the same passages used in Young and
Oxford's (1997) study along with comprehension assessment tasks
with two groups of students from advanced university grammar and
literature courses (23 males and 53 females for grammar courses and 9
males and 47 females for literature courses). Across both levels, male
participants reported being more familiar with the topic of boxing than
the females did, and female participants indicated being more familiar
with the topic of a frustrated housewife than the males did.
Furthermore, results showed no significant gender differences in
comprehension of the gender-oriented passages at the more advanced
stages of acquisition. These results indicate that while significant
 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary… 109

differences in topic familiarity are maintained across instruction

levels, the effects of passage content on L2 reading comprehension by
gender are not maintained when the intermediate level text is read by
more advanced learners.

2.6. Studies Conducted in Iran

As far as the studies related to the topic of investigation conducted
in Iran are concerned, one can refer to a few researches.
Golkar and Yamini's study (2007) was conducted to empirically
determine the reliability and validity of the passive and active versions
of the Vocabulary Levels Tests. It tried to investigate the nature of the
students' vocabulary knowledge with regard to their passive and active
knowledge of the L2 words as a whole and at different word
frequency levels. It also studied the relationships between these two
types of vocabulary knowledge and the learners' proficiency level and
reading comprehension ability. The participants were 76 Iranian
undergraduate students majoring in engineering and English Language
and Literature. Three tests of the Vocabulary Levels Test, the
Productive Version of the Vocabulary Levels Test, and a TOEFL test
were administered to students to find out the relationship between the
two vocabulary tests and their relationship to their proficiency level
and reading comprehension. The results proved the reliability and
validity of Vocabulary Levels Tests as the tests of vocabulary size.
The learners' passive and active vocabularies were also highly
correlated as a whole and at each separate word-frequency level.
Passive vocabulary was always larger than active vocabulary at all
levels. In addition, there was a high correlation between the learners'
vocabulary knowledge on the one hand and proficiency and reading
comprehension ability on the other hand.
Kaivanpanah and Zandi (2009) attempted to investigate the role of
depth of vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension. A TOEFL
test and a measure of depth of vocabulary knowledge was
administered to 57 EFL learners (17 males and 40 females). The
analysis of the results showed that although depth of vocabulary
knowledge is significantly related to reading, grammatical knowledge
explains the greatest amount of variance in tests takers` performance
on reading comprehension tests.
 110 Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning.No.222,Year,53/Autumn-Winter 2011

2.7. Objectives of the study

With regard to the fact that breadth and depth are regarded as two
interconnected dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, knowing a large
vocabulary can not help learners a lot if their knowledge is shallow
and superficial. Therefore, while the size of vocabulary knowledge is
an important factor in predicting success in reading comprehension,
depth of vocabulary plays an important role as well. Some studies
have been conducted on the depth and breadth of vocabulary
knowledge and their relationship to reading comprehension. But as far
as the review of related literature is concerned, no study has been done
on the relationship between the depth and breadth of vocabulary
knowledge and reading comprehension in Iran. Therefore, the present
study attempts to find the effectiveness of the two aspects of
vocabulary knowledge on Iranian EFL learners’ reading
comprehension. It also tries to find out whether gender will have any
effect on learners’ reading performance.

2.8. Research questions

Considering the objectives of the study, one can formulate the
following research questions.
1) How do scores on vocabulary size, depth of vocabulary
knowledge, and reading comprehension correlate with one another?
2) What is the relationship between the size of vocabulary
knowledge and depth of vocabulary knowledge?
3) Which one of these two aspects of vocabulary knowledge is a
better predictor of reading comprehension performance?
4) Does gender have any effect on learners’ reading performance
and vocabulary knowledge?

2.9. Significance of the study

Reading comprehension and vocabulary development seem to be
the most important and useful activities in any language class,
especially for the students of English as a foreign language (EFL) in
Iran. In fact, most students learning English in poor-input contexts
compensate their lack of exposure to spoken English by engaging in
reading comprehension activities. Studies on these two aspects can be
of great value for Education administration and even for universities.
As recommended by several researchers (Cameron 2002; Nation,
2001), measuring students’ vocabulary knowledge allows teachers to
set the language goals for the course within communicative language
teaching. It is also helpful because of the insights it offers for the
cognitive processes involved in reading and vocabulary acquisition.
 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary… 111

Therefore, any research in line with these points may broaden our
understanding of the nature of vocabulary knowledge and its relation
to reading comprehension. With regard to the crucial role of
vocabulary knowledge, little is known about how and what aspect of
vocabulary knowledge can affect reading comprehension more
effectively in Iran as an EFL context.

3. Methodology
3.1. Participants
The participants of this study were 60 (30 male and 30 female)
advanced learners of English as a foreign language who were chosen
from among five language teaching institutes in Shiraz. They had
studied English as a part of the national curriculum. However, they
enrolled in language classes in order to compensate for the deficiency
of English education at high school or university. They ranged in age
from 17- 32.

3.2. Instruments
The data collection instruments used in this study were as follows:
(1) Vocabulary Level Test (VLT), (2) Word Associate Test (WAT),
and (3) Reading Comprehension Test.

3.2.1. Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT)

The Vocabulary Levels Test used in this study was the second
version of the vocabulary levels test revised by Schmitt et al. (2001).
It was originally produced by Nation in 1983 and was later revised by
him in 1990. It is a paper-and-pencil test that provides an estimate of
vocabulary size at 2000, 3000, 5000, and 10000 frequency levels and
also provides an estimate of the size of the examinee’s academic
vocabulary. The 2000 and 3000 word-family levels test include only
high frequency words in English; the 5000 word-family level is a
boundary level between the high frequency and low frequency levels;
and the 10000 word –family level includes low frequency words. The
university word list level contains specialized vocabulary needed for
academic studies.
In this version, there are 10 clusters at each level and each cluster
has six words and three definitions. So the test has 150 items. The
testees are supposed to match the definitions on the right in each
cluster with the corresponding words on the left. The items are not
contextualized so that no clues to the meaning are provided. An item
of the test is provided below as an example.
 112 Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning.No.222,Year,53/Autumn-Winter 2011

a. business
b. clock 1. _______ part of a house
c. horse 2. _______ animal with four legs
d. pencil 3. _______ something used for writing
e. shoe
f. wall
In scoring, Nation (1983) states that a score of 12 or less out of 18
(66.67%) at a vocabulary size level is an indication that this level has
not been mastered. Based on Nation's scoring, the researchers
assumed that a score of 20 out of 30 at each level could be an
indication of that level's mastery. Since the VLT in this study included
five levels, the highest possible score is 150 (1 point x 30 items x 5
levels).
Schmitt (2001) reported that reliability coefficients ranged from
.92 to .96 for different sections of the test. However, to further ensure
the reliability of the test, after the data collection, it was administered
to participants randomly selected from among the ones who had
participated in the study, with a time interval of two weeks. The
acquired reliability index was .93 which is an acceptable reliability
index.

3.2.2 Word Associate Test (WAT)

To measure the depth of vocabulary knowledge, Word-Associate
Test (WAT) developed by Read (1993) was used. As mentioned
above, the WAT attempts to measure the learner’s depth of
vocabulary knowledge through word associations, that is, the various
semantic and collocational relationships that a word has with other
words in the language. The test is composed of 40 target words. Each
item consists of one stimulus word, which is an adjective and two
boxes, each containing four words which are mainly nouns. Among
the four words in the left box, one to three words can be synonymous
to one aspect of, or the whole meaning of the stimulus word, whereas
among the four words in the right box, there can be one to three words
that collocate with the stimulus word. The instruction sheet for the test
taken explains that there are always four correct answers in each item.
However, these answers are not evenly spread. Three situations are
 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary… 113

possible: a) the left and right boxes both contain two correct answers;
b) the left box contains one correct answer and the right box contains
three correct answers; c) the left box contains three correct answers
and the right box contains only one correct answer.

For example, for the word Sound, the following options are given:
Sound: A) logical, B) healthy, C) bold, D) solid, E) snow, F)
temperature, G) sleep, H) dance.
In this item, sound is synonymous with logical, healthy and solid.
Moreover, it collocates with sleep, so, the correct choices are A, B, D,
and G.
Participants received a point for each correctly answered item: in
scoring DVKT, each word correctly chosen was given one point. Test
takers were not penalized for providing incorrect answers. The
maximum possible score was 160 for the total test.
The reliability of the test was further tested through test-retest
method of estimating reliability. After the test was administered to all
the participants of the study, it was once more randomly administered
to students who had already completed the test with a time interval of
two weeks. The reliability index for the test obtained through this
method was .91.

3.2.3. Reading Comprehension Test

In order to investigate the learners’ comprehension ability, a
reading comprehension test was employed. This test was a
standardized multiple-choice reading comprehension test taken from
one version of a TOEFL test. It was composed of six passages with
different topics of science, art, history and sociology. Each passage
was accompanied by five multiple choice questions. In scoring, one
point was allocated to each correct answer given to a comprehension
question. The maximum possible score was 30.
In order to estimate the reliability of the instrument, as for the first
two tests, it was given to the same participants who had taken it
before, after a lapse of two weeks. The test-retest reliability index
obtained was .87.
 114 Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning.No.222,Year,53/Autumn-Winter 2011

3.3. Data Collection Procedure

The tests were administered during a class period. Before learners
took the test, they were informed of the general purpose of the study
and were told that their performance on the test would not affect their
course outcome. The data collection procedure was carried out in two
sessions during a class period. In the first session, the two vocabulary
knowledge tests, namely, vocabulary level test and word associate test
were given to the students. For the WAT test, they were instructed to
read each of the target words and then circle the four words closely
related to the target word. The time allocated to the test was 30
minutes. For the VLT test, the testees were asked to match the
definitions on the right in each cluster with the corresponding words
on the left. The total score for this test was 150.
In the next session, the reading comprehension test was
administered. The participants were told to mark the answers on the
answer sheet and they were not penalized for the wrong answers. The
time allocated for the reading comprehension test was 45 minutes.

3.4. Data Analysis

The SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) was used to
conduct the analysis of the data. One-tailed Pearson product-moment
correlations and multiple regression were used as the dominant
techniques for the statistical analyses. One-tailed product-moment
correlations were computed for scores from the reading
comprehension (RC), vocabulary size test (VS) and depth of
vocabulary knowledge (DVK) to find any possible relationship among
the three variables. In the regression analysis, the scores on the RC
were used as the dependant variable and those of VS, and DVK as
independent variables. Three independent t-tests were also run to
determine whether the differences between the size of vocabulary
knowledge, depth of vocabulary knowledge and reading
comprehension of the two genders were statistically significant or not.
 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary… 115

4. Results and Discussion

4.1. Descriptive Statistics of Participants' Performance on

the Instruments After the collection of the data through the three
instruments described above, the calculated data were analyzed. Table
4.1 presents the descriptive statistics of the participants' performance
on the instruments.
Table 4.1: Descriptive statistics of vocabulary depth,
vocabulary breadth and reading comprehension
Variables N Mean Std. Deviation Minimum Maximum
Breadth 60 79.78 8.52 65.00 99.00
Depth 60 82.46 7.02 70.00 98.00
Reading 60 24.01 3.73 17.00 30.00

As the table shows, the mean score of breadth of vocabulary

knowledge, vocabulary depth and reading comprehension are 79.78,
82.46, and 24.01, respectively.

4.2. Determining the Relationship among the Three Variables

In order to determine the relationship between the two independent
variables of depth of vocabulary knowledge (DVK ) and vocabulary
size (VS) and the dependant variable of reading comprehension (RC)
and also the relationship between the two independent variables, their
correlation coefficient were calculated at .05 level of significance. The
results obtained from these computations are presented in the
following matrix of correlations.

Table 4.2: Pearson correlations between the vocabulary

breadth, depth and reading comprehension
Variables breadth depth Reading
Breadth 1 .837** .717**
Depth .837** 1 .740**
Reading .717** .740** 1
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Table 4.2 shows the correlations between the vocabulary breadth,
depth and reading comprehension scores to elucidate the strength of
association between the dependent and independent variables. Going
 116 Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning.No.222,Year,53/Autumn-Winter 2011

through the table, one can see that the learners' reading comprehension
performance was significantly correlated with their breadth of
vocabulary (r = .71, p < .01), implying that a larger vocabulary
enabled students to recall more information from the text they read.
With regard to depth of vocabulary knowledge as another independent
variable of the study, as far as the results of the above statistical
analysis reveals, there was a high and significant correlation between
this variable and reading comprehension (r = .74, p < .01) which
suggests that deeper knowledge of words help learners comprehend
the text better. Considering the relationship between the two
independent variables of depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge,
one can see a positive and statistically significant correlation (r= .83,
p<.01) which indicates that these two aspects of vocabulary
knowledge are interrelated, that is, those learners who had a large
vocabulary size had a deeper knowledge of the words, too.

4.3. The Prediction of Reading Comprehension Performance

by Independent Variables
In order to find out to what extent the EFL learners' knowledge of
reading comprehension was accounted for by the combination of the
three factors of depth, breadth and gender and to know the weight of
any one of the independent variables on the variance in the dependent
variable, that is, to indicate which factor is a better predictor, multiple
regression analyses were used. Table 4.3 indicates the results.

Table 4.3: Multiple regression for the relationship between

reading comprehension and independent variables
Model R² F Sig.

1 .58 39.29 .000

P< 0.05
As illustrated in the table, the relationship between reading
comprehension and the independent variables –the regressors-, depth
and breadth of vocabulary knowledge, is significant at p<.05. As the
table shows, the R² index is .58, a relatively good fit, indicating that
58% of the variation in reading comprehension was accounted for by
the independent variables. Nonetheless, this significant value does not
mean that all the variables, one by one, predict the reading
comprehension. Table 4.4 shows the partial regression coefficients,
 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary… 117

pointing out the degree to which each independent variable was

related to the dependent variable, i.e., reading comprehension.

Table 4.4: Partial regression coefficients for the degree of

prediction of independent variables on reading comprehension
Variables Beta t- value Sig.
Breadth .32 2.09 .040
Depth .46 2.96 .004

P< 0.05
Table 4.4 indicates that both variables, namely, depth and breadth
of vocabulary knowledge significantly predicted the reading
comprehension performance at p<0.05. A look at Beta indices reveals
that depth of vocabulary knowledge was a stronger predictor of
reading comprehension and had a stronger effect on reading
comprehension scores (0. 46). This means, all the variables held
constant, for every unit increase in the level of depth of vocabulary
knowledge, the reading comprehension score increased by .46 unit.
Another strong predictor of reading comprehension performance was
breadth of vocabulary knowledge with Beta= .32. This, again, means
that there was an increase in reading comprehension scores by .32 for
every extra point in the level of vocabulary breadth.
With respect to the above results, one can say that vocabulary
depth is a better predictor of reading comprehension scores than
vocabulary breadth.

4.4. Identifying the Possible Effect of Gender on the

Dependant and Independent Variables
In order to determine whether the variable gender can have an
effect on the dependent variable of the study, reading comprehension,
and on the other independent variables, namely, depth and breadth of
vocabulary knowledge, some further analyses of the data were
performed.
To make sure whether the variable gender can have an effect on
the other independent variables of the study and on the dependant
variable, three independent t-tests were performed. The results
obtained from these analyses are depicted in the following tables.
Table 4.5 presents the results of the t-test for the reading
comprehension scores.
 118 Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning.No.222,Year,53/Autumn-Winter 2011

Table 4.5: Independent sample t-test on gender and reading

comprehension
Variable N Mean SD t df Sig
Reading 30 22.93 3.68
comprehension male - 58 .61
30 25.10 3.51 2.33
female

The results reported in Table 4.5 reveal no significant difference

between males and females’ reading comprehension scores (t=2.33,
p> 0.05). This means that males and females have performed similarly
on the reading comprehension test. Table 4.6 summarizes the results
of the t-test for the males and females’ scores on the vocabulary size
test.

Table 4.6: Independent sample t-test on gender and

vocabulary breadth
Variable N Mean SD t df Sig
Vocabulary breadth male 30 76.60 7.83
-3.09 58 .94
female 30 82.96 8.08

As the table shows, there is no statistically significant difference

between male and female's performance on vocabulary size test either
(t= 3.09, p>0.05). In other words, gender had no effect on learners'
vocabulary breadth.
Table 4.7 shows the results of the t-test for males and females'
scores on the vocabulary depth test.

Table 4.7: Independent sample t-test on gender and vocabulary

depth
Variable N Mean SD t df Sig
Vocabulary depth 30 80.06 6.67
male -2.76 58 .53
30 84.86 6.61
female
 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary… 119

As the results of the above analysis shows, there is no statistically

significant difference between the males and females' scores on
vocabulary depth test. In other words, both male and female learners
performed similarly in their vocabulary depth test.
With regard to the results of the above analyses, the variable
gender does not have any statistically significant effect on the
performance of the participants either on the two independent
variables of the study or on the dependant variable. Such being the
case, it can be claimed that the variable gender has no effect on
participants' performance on reading comprehension or on the two
aspects of vocabulary knowledge.

4.5. Discussion
As seen above, the results obtained from the analysis of the data
revealed that there is a relationship between vocabulary depth and
breadth and reading comprehension, and that these variables predict
the learners' L2 reading comprehension performance. The results also
showed a positive correlation between the two independent variables
of vocabulary depth and breadth. With regard to the variable gender,
as the results indicates, it has no effect either on the dependent
variable or on the independent variables of the study. In what follows,
the results obtained from the analysis of the data are discussed in the
light of the relationships which exist between and among the variables
of the study based on the related literature review.
The Pearson correlation coefficients obtained for the variable pairs
of RC, VS, and DVK were all higher than .60 (p<.05). In other words,
high and positive intercorrelations existed among the scores on the
three tests. The results of the present study, as far as the relationship
between the vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension scores
are concerned, are directly in line with those of studies conducted by
Koda (1989), Gelderen (2004), and Snow (2002) who showed that
there is a positive relationship between vocabulary knowledge and
reading comprehension performance.
In connection to the relationship between vocabulary size and
reading comprehension, the results of the present study indicated that
there is a positive and high interrelation between these two variables.
These results support the results of studies carried out by Grabe and
Stroller (2001), Laufer (1996), and Zhang and Annual (2008).
With regard to the relationship between depth of vocabulary
knowledge and reading comprehension, the correlations among DVK,
VS, and RC were especially high, indicating that, for this given
sample and among the three tests under discussion, the scores on the
 120 Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning.No.222,Year,53/Autumn-Winter 2011

DVK, representing the meaning and collocation components of depth

of vocabulary knowledge, were highly and positively intercorrelated
with the learners' general academic reading comprehension levels.
These results are in line with the studies done by Qian and Schedle
(2004) and Qian (2002).
With respect to the interrelatedness of vocabulary depth and
breadth, the scores on the DVK and VS dimensions of vocabulary
knowledge are also closely and positively correlated, which make us
believe that the development of the two dimensions is indeed
interconnected and interdependent. On the other hand, the high
correlation between DVK and VS scores may be attributed to the
partial construct overlap of the two measures. The VS measures the
primary meaning of words, while the DVK measures knowledge of
synonymy, polysemy, and collocation. Although the DVK tests more
and deeper aspects of vocabulary knowledge than the VS, primary
meaning is, in certain cases, part of knowledge of synonymy and
polysemy, and knowledge of word meaning sometimes has an impact
on knowledge of collocation.
The results obtained from this section of data analysis lend support
to some studies conducted by Schmitt and Meara (1997), Qian (2002),
and Vermeer (2001).
In the multiple regression analysis, the results showed that both
VS and DVK contributed significantly to the prediction of RC and
that vocabulary depth was a better predictor of reading comprehension
than vocabulary breadth. In other words, DVK, which represented
scores on two components of depth of vocabulary knowledge (lexical
meaning and collocation), made a significant and unique contribution
to the prediction of scores on academic reading comprehension
beyond the prediction provided by scores on vocabulary size. The
results of the present study corroborate Qian's (2002) findings which
revealed that depth of vocabulary knowledge contributes significantly
to test-takers' performance in the assessment of reading
comprehension and predicts learners' reading comprehension
performance better than vocabulary breadth does. But these results are
in contrast with Tannenbaum's (2006) study. He reported that although
the two dimensions of word knowledge had significant overlapping
variance that contributed to the prediction of reading comprehension,
breadth had a stronger relationship to reading comprehension than
depth/fluency did.
In connection with the effect of gender on participants' reading
comprehension performance, although the results of the present study
indicated that there is no significant difference between the males' and
 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary… 121

females' reading comprehension performance, a number of studies

such as those carried out by Sallabas (2008), Al-Shumaimeri (2005),
and Wei-Wei (2009) showed that there is a positive relationship
between gender and reading comprehension, Sallabas (2008) reported
that there is a big difference between two genders over reading
comprehension and that females are better at reading comprehension
than males. Conversely, Al-Shumaimeri's (2005) findings reveal that
male students significantly outperformed their female counterparts in
both reading comprehension tests used in the study.

5. Conclusions
The findings of the present study can be summarized as follows:
With respect to the relationship between vocabulary size and reading
comprehension, a high and positive correlation was obtained which
shows that the more words the learners know; the more easily they
comprehend the texts. As for the relationship between depth of
vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, the results of the
study indicated that they are interrelated positively and significantly
which shows that a deep knowledge of vocabulary helps students to
become better readers.
In connection with the relationship between the two dimensions of
vocabulary knowledge, that is, depth and breadth, the results showed a
high and positive correlation between these two variables. In other
words, the interrelatedness of vocabulary depth and breadth makes us
claim that there is much overlap between these two aspects and
learners need to develop them side by side.
With regard to the prediction power of depth of vocabulary
knowledge and vocabulary breadth, the results revealed that although
both can be considered as predictors of reading comprehension
performance, vocabulary depth is a stronger predictor of reading
comprehension performance than vocabulary breadth is. In other
words, learners who have a deeper knowledge of words (meaning and
collocation) outperform those who know more words.
As for the effect of gender on the learners' reading comprehension
performance and vocabulary knowledge tests, the results revealed no
significant difference between males and females. Therefore,
according to the results of the present study, gender differences do not
play a role in the learners' vocabulary knowledge and reading
comprehension performance.
 122 Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning.No.222,Year,53/Autumn-Winter 2011

5.1. Implications of the Study

In this part, pedagogical implications of the study with respect to
EFL learners and teachers and material developers are discussed.
The results of the present study may provide EFL teachers with
some invaluable information. Understanding students’ average
vocabulary knowledge and reading ability enables test developers to
develop more appropriate English tests that can actually assess
students’ reading comprehension.
English teachers should plan to help their students reach the
vocabulary threshold as soon as possible by recommending them to
read storybooks, magazines, and newspapers in English. According to
Hwang and Nation (1989), stories, magazines and newspapers
constantly repeat some frequent words and technological terms related
to a topic. Multiple repetitions reduce readers’ lexical burden and help
them to better extract information from the text they read.
EFL teachers should consider vocabulary depth and breadth as two
important components of EFL syllabus to improve students' reading
comprehension. They should introduce synonymy and polysemy of
words besides their primary meaning. They should also pay attention
to the collocational relations of words with each other since they play
important roles in comprehension of English texts.
The results of the present study also help students who plan to
increase their vocabulary knowledge and improve their reading
comprehension. They must know that achieving their goals depends
on their own efforts. Consequently, students must develop the habit of
independent reading as a source of entertainment, information, and
self-improvement.
The results also provide textbooks writers with much precious
information for developing and promoting English texts. Based on
students’ vocabulary knowledge and reading ability, textbooks
developers can select or compose more suitable texts. They must
design some activities after reading comprehension passages to help
readers develop the depth and breadth of their knowledge of
vocabulary.
 The Relationship between Depth and Breadth of Vocabulary… 123

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