Psychometric Analysis and Empirical Study of the Relations of Vocabulary and Grammar to English Reading Comprehension

字彙、文法、與英文閱讀理解能力表的驗證及其間關係的探討

陳柏軒(Po-Hsuan Chen)

vocabulary knowledge ； grammar knowledge ； English reading comprehension ； 字彙 ； 文法 ； 英文閱讀理解能力

逢甲人文社會學報

37期（2018 / 12 / 01）

1 - 36

英文

The present study aimed to analyze the psychometric properties of the Vocabulary Test (VT), the Grammar Test (GT), and the English Reading Comprehension Test (ERCT) in terms of item difficulty, item discrimination, and reliability, and to examine the relative roles of vocabulary and grammar in English reading comprehension, particularly by taking English reading proficiency into account in Taiwanese EFL contexts. A total of 140 (26 males, 114 females) EFL university freshmen taking General English I satisfactorily completed the VT, the GT, and the ERCT. The results showed that the VT, the GT, and the ERCT were reliable tests with most of their items having acceptable difficulty index (p) and discrimination index (d). In addition, vocabulary and grammar scores were higher among learners of higher reading proficiency than those of lower reading proficiency. Moreover, although both vocabulary and grammar were positively correlated with reading comprehension, grammar was the sole significant predictor of reading comprehension, and completely mediated the relation between vocabulary and reading comprehension regardless of learners' levels of reading proficiency. The paper concludes with implications for English reading instruction and directions for future studies.

本研究旨在驗證字彙、文法、與英文閱讀理解能力測驗的難度、鑑別力、及信度；及探討字彙與文法在英文閱讀理解時的相對角色是否會因學習者的閱讀能力不同而改變。共140位修讀通識英文的大一學生有效地完成字彙、文法、與英文閱讀理解能力測驗。研究結果顯示字彙、文法、與英文閱讀理解能力測驗均具有信度，且三個測驗的大部分題目均具有適當的難度(p)，及良好的鑑別力(d)；高閱讀能力者比低閱讀能力者擁有較高的字彙與文法分數；不管閱讀能力高或低，字彙與文法均與英文閱讀理解能力有顯著相關，但文法卻是唯一能預測英文閱讀理解能力的有效變項，且文法能完全中介字彙與英文閱讀理解能力的關係。本研究結果可提供英文閱讀教學及未來研究方向的參考。

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