Reading Problem In English Language

English language is widely used around the world and it is “appeared to be the universal language of communication” (Nunan, 2003, p. 590). In Thailand, English language is considered to be very important. Thai Students start to learn English since primary school. It is included as a basic compulsory subject in curriculum. Furthermore, undergraduate students are required to learn English as a foreign language. (The Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC), 2016). English is also considered to be the main language for business purpose in Asian countries (Nickerson & Camiciottoli, 2013), therefore, many Thai people also continue to study English at the graduate level. One of the most vital parts in English language learning is vocabulary

Research studies focusing on young students and undergraduate students have been conducted to investigate further. Kotchana and Tongpoon-Patanasorn (2015) found that Thai Grade 6 students in Northeastern region had a small vocabulary size both receptive and productive. More importantly, their vocabulary size was lower than Ministry of Education’s requirement which expect that students at this level should know 1,050-1,200 high frequency words. Yunus, Mohamed, and Waelateh (2016) found that mean receptive vocabulary size of Thai first year undergraduate students was about 2000 word families which was lower than vocabulary size of Malaysian students. Furthermore, Nirattisai and Chiramanee (2014) found that third year undergraduate students’ mean receptive vocabulary size was around 5751.58 word families. This indicated that students’ vocabulary size is not enough according to previous research studies which suggested that undergraduate students should know at least 8,000 word families to know 98% of the words in the texts (Laufer & Ravenhorst-Kalovski,

And how does vocabulary size affect their study at the graduate level?

1.4 Objective of the study 1.4.1 To identify the mean receptive vocabulary size of Thai EFL graduate students and explore the effects of vocabulary size on their study at the graduate level from students’ perspective.

1.5 Definition of terms

1.5.1 General definitions of terms

1.5.1.1 Receptive vocabulary knowledge refers to the knowledge that is needed to linking an L2 form to the concept or meaning (Llach & Espinosa, 2013, p.61).

1.5.1.2 Productive vocabulary knowledge refers to the knowledge that is needed to linking the meaning or concept to its form in the L2 (Llach & Espinosa, 2013, p.61).

1.5.1.3 Vocabulary size refers to the number of words known by learners (Schmitt, 2008).

1.5.1.4 Text coverage refers to the proportion of a text which is covered by certain numbers of high frequency words (Nation & Waring, 1997, p.8).

1.5.2 Operational definition of terms

1.5.2.1 Thai EFL graduate learners in the current study means students who study in Master of Arts program in Career English for International Communication, Thammasat