Abstract
The purposes of this study are (1) to examine whether vocabulary knowledge highly correlates with general English ability among Japanese third-year junior high school students, who have learned English only for two years or so, and if so, (2) to look into the inner side or mechanism of the phenomenon that vocabulary knowledge highly correlates with general English ability among junior high school students. As for the second purpose, the author attempts, first, to look into general English ability through STEP 3rd grade test, and, next, to dissolve the general English ability into some partial factors, and, finally, to find whether the biggest factor is similar to or related with vocabulary knowledge. One hundred forty-nine students took Mochizuki's (1998) Vocabulary Size Test ver. 2 and the past STEP 3rd grade test, which had seven sections. The correlation coefficient was calculated. Then, factor analysis was conducted for their total eight variables, and two factors were extracted. The primary factor had middle-high factor loading with vocabulary knowledge. It was found that (1) vocabulary knowledge highly correlated with general English ability among Japanese third-year junior high school students and that (2) the principle factor might be similar to or related to vocabulary knowledge and that that might be why superficially the amount of vocabulary knowledge highly correlated with general English ability.
