Investigating the role of vocabulary instruction in enhancing efl learners' reading comprehension : the case study of first year lmd students in the department of english at Blida 2 University

Abstract EN

Vocabulary teaching has gone through many changes to cope with the demands of teaching/ learning environments.

There is ample literature on the strategies for teaching vocabulary.

However, more research is needed on the specificity of the Algerian tertiary level context.

The paper focuses on investigating the role of effective vocabulary instruction strategies in enhancing first-year LMD students' reading comprehension in the Department of English at Blida 2 University, in Algeria.

To this effect, two research instruments were utilized.

Two questionnaires were administered to ten Algerian EFL teachers from the Department of English at Blida 2 University and thirty first-year LMD students from the same department.

The students' sample was then divided into two groups of equal size (control and experimental).

The aim was to design a reading comprehension course that bases instruction on incorporating three vocabulary teaching strategies.

These were pre-teaching vocabulary, guessing meaning from context, and using the dictionary.

The efficacy of these strategies in improving first-year LMD students' reading comprehension and vocabulary development was tested after administering the treatment (i.

e.

, having students attend the designed course for five weeks).

The present investigation findings have shown that vocabulary teaching strategies foster first-year LMD students reading comprehension.