The Correlation Between Lexical Competence and EFL Writing Quality : The Case of the English Department Students at AL-Fashir University

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the correlation between lexical competence of some Sudanese university students and their writing quality in English. Since words are assumed to be the most fundamental factors for quality writing, this study has endeavoured to shed some light on the impact of vocabulary richness on the writing standard of the university students. The research data was obtained from two sources: vocabulary competence test and writing competence test, both of which have been conducted among the students of the English Department at the Faculty of Education, University of AL-Fashir. It has been statistically analysed by using SPSS programme, version 10.5. The results have shown that although the overall performance of the students on both tests was found to be poor, lexically competent students have written excellent essays. The results have also indicated that learning only single words would not improve the students' writing proficiency, rather other aspects of the language have to be present. Likewise, the findings did confirm the research hypotheses