| Summary: | 碩士 === 臺北市立教育大學 === 英語教學系碩士班 === 100 === The present study aims to investigate how four vocabulary subcomponents, vocabulary size, word association, collocation, and derivative word form related to English reading comprehension performance, and how they interrelated with one another. In addition, this study also seeks to explore the overall and respective contribution of these subcomponents to reading comprehension. The participants in the present study were 124 college students from Taipei Municipal University of Education. This study employed four tests: (1) one vocabulary levels test, measuring the participants’ breadth of vocabulary knowledge, (2) one depth of vocabulary knowledge test, assessing their word association knowledge and collocation knowledge, (3) one derivative word form test, gauging their knowledge of derivational morphology, and (4) one reading comprehension test, measuring their performance on reading comprehension. Two questionnaires, consisting of Language Learning Orientation Scale and Self Efficacy Questionnaire, were utilized to evaluate the participants’ motivation and their self efficacy in learning English. The collected data were analyzed using Pearson product-moment correlations and standard multiple regression procedures. The results can be summarized as follows. First, vocabulary size, word association, collocation, and derivative word form were all correlated significantly with the performance on reading comprehension, with correlation coefficients ranging from .35 to .44. Second, word association was found to have the strongest correlation (r = .87) with collocation, followed by its correlation (r = .56) with vocabulary size, and derivative word form (r = .55). Furthermore, vocabulary size was also moderately related to derivative word form (r = .56) and to collocation (r = .52). A medium correlation (r = .56) was also obtained between collocation and derivative word form. Third, multiple regression analyses indicated that after the effects of motivation and self efficacy have been controlled, the four vocabulary subcomponents altogether contributed significantly (20%) to reading comprehension. Fourth, vocabulary size accounted for a unique proportion of the explained variance (3%) in reading comprehension in addition to depth of vocabulary knowledge, while depth of vocabulary knowledge provided an additional explained variance (6%) in reading comprehension over and above vocabulary size. Finally, further analyses showed that among the three subcomponents of depth of vocabulary knowledge, collocation explained the most proportion of variance (6%) in contributing to performance on reading comprehension, while derivative word form explained the least, and not significant variance (2%) in predicting performance on reading comprehension. Based on these findings, some implications and suggestions for future research were provided.
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