Exploring English lexical inferencing strategies performed by EFL university students

Abstract

This study investigated two points: (1) Lexical inferencing strategies applied by the S2 students while inferring word meanings from an English research paper and (2) the problems the students deal with while inferring word meanings from an English research paper. An introspective method was employed since it investigated the set of strategies and sources of knowledge employed during reading. Six English EFL students participated in this study. It was found out that the learners basically employed 12 types of lexical inferenc- ing strategies which were grouped into four major strategies, namely: form-focused strategy, meaning-focused strategy, evaluating strategy, and monitoring strategy. Moreover, there were five lexical problems when the learners inferred unknown word meanings from a reading text.