Quantifying academic readiness: ESL undergraduates' mastery of English vocabulary

摘要

An adequate vocabulary is a prerequisite to achieve language proficiency and academic success This study assessed the vocabulary knowledge of undergraduates at a Malaysian public university where English is the predominant medium of information transfer. Two tests from Beglar and Hunt's Revsed Vocabulary Levels Tests were used to evaluate the vocabulary mastery of 407 undergraduate students The findings revealed that nearly two-thirds of the students failed to reach the vocabulary threshold level needed to competently comprehend reading materials in English. Overall, the performance of the Malaysian students did not match that of ESL/EFL undergraduates in other non-English speaking countries Although the overwhelming majority of students recognized a need to improve their vocabulary, few took active steps to do so.