摘要：The present study primarily aims to investigate the relationship between Pakistani
students’ receptive vocabulary growth and their reading development at two
different points: at the beginning and the end of English course. The standardized
vocabulary size test (VST) and reading comprehension test (TOEFL) were
administered to 123 first year postgraduate university students. To analyse the
data, both descriptive and inferential tests were performed in SPSS (version, 21).
The findings of the descriptive statistics showed a change in the mean scores of
participants’ vocabulary on 14,000 words list at the beginning of the English
course (M=35.00) and (M=40.80) at the end of the English course respectively.
The findings of the paired t-test revealed that the change was significant at p<.001.
The findings of correlation test indicated that students’ vocabulary size and their
reading ability were closely associated at (r = .76). The findings of the simple
linear regression also generated acceptable model where 58.2% of the variance in
the dependent variable (reading comprehension) was predicted by the independent
variable (vocabulary size). This study has some implications for teaching and
learning of the English language.
关键词：semester course; correlation between VST and reading at two different
points; dynamicity of vocabulary size; students’ receptive vocabulary growth; EFL
