Exploring Links Between Aural Lexical Knowledge and L2 Listening in Arabic and Japanese Speakers: A Close Replication of Cheng, Matthews, Lange and McLean (2022)

Aural lexical knowledge (ALK) is crucial for second language (L2) listening. Despite its importance, there is scant research that has validly explored the relationship between ALK and L2 listening across different English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. In an effort to broaden this research base, the current study closely replicates a previous study, Cheng et al. (2022), which measured single-word ALK, phrasal verb ALK and L2 listening comprehension among participants with Chinese as a first language (L1). The current study administered the same instruments but did so among 147 Japanese and 131 Arabic-speaking English language learners. Results indicated that the capacity of ALK to predict variance in L2 listening for the Japanese group (R² = .38) was similar to that observed in the original study (R² = .42). However, the results for the Arabic-speaking group were very different to that of the original study and showed an unexpectedly strong relationship between ALK and L2 listening (R² = .92). Future research directions and pedagogical implications are discussed.