The Mediating Roles of Gender and Academic Field in the Relationship between Vocabulary Knowledge and Reading Comprehension of EFL Students

This study examined the mediating roles of gender and academic field in relationship between vocabulary knowledge reading comprehension. A size test, a depth test IELTS were administered to 319 university-level students (54 males; 265 females) from three disciplines: medicine, science, arts. The findings revealed that had 2000 3000 word families, low (45.3%), poor comprehension (52.4%). Besides, male outperformed female all variables. Meanwhile, medical superiority over science arts Vocabulary Level Test (VLT) breadth significantly correlated with contribution VLT Depth Knowledge (DVK) differs depending on field.