Explicit Lexical Inferencing Instruction and Performance on Inferencing Related Reading Tasks in a Thai University EFL Context

Abstract

The study investigated whether explicit lexical inferencing instruction was associated with higher performance on reading comprehension tasks that contained inferencing related items among Thai university learners. It sought to address the gap in the literature, as some previous studies have focused on a limited number of strategies or short-term interventions. Two intact classes of Thai undergraduate EFL students at the B1 to B2 level were assigned as experimental and control groups in a quasi-experimental design lasting six weeks. The experimental group received explicit instruction in a five-step inferencing strategy and eight types of contextual clues. The control group followed standard reading instruction without the explicit inferencing training. Three post-tests were administered after the reading tasks and included items that required inferring word meanings from context. The raw scores favored the experimental group across all three tests, suggesting a directional pattern in favor of the treatment. However, after controlling for initial baseline ability, a significant group effect was found on only one measure. Ceiling effects, including zero variance in the experimental group on two post-tests, limited the sensitivity of the measures. These findings suggest that structured explicit inferencing instruction may support performance on reading comprehension tasks involving lexical inferencing, but they should be interpreted cautiously because the study did not directly measure general lexical inferencing ability.