Instructors' Perceptions of the Effect of Breadth and Depth of Lexical Knowledge on English-Major Undergraduates' Speaking Skill

Article History: Received: 10/10/2020 Accepted: 29/11/2020 Published: Winter 2020 This study investigates the instructors' viewpoints on the effect of breadth and depth of lexical knowledge on Englishmajor undergraduates' speaking skill. To achieve the objectives of this research, data were collected through a questionnaire which consists of 21 items and each item has 5 options. It was filled in by twenty instructors from the College of Basic Education, College of Education and College of Language at Salahaddin University-Erbil. The results of the questionnaire showed that, in general the EFL instructors believed that the quality of EFL learners' speaking skill and speaking proficiency to an extent depend on the quantity an depth of vocabulary knowledge.

This research attempts to find answer to the following questions: 1. to what extent does the depth and breadth of lexical knowledge (pronunciation, word association, grammatical categories (word class) and collocation) correlates with speaking proficiency through questionnaire?
It is hypothesized that Lack of lexical knowledge has influence on EFL college students' performance in speaking skill.
The Study is expected to be of great value to those working in the field of applied linguistics. It is also valuable to EFL college students in developing speaking skill. This current study is of great value to researchers who want to research into breadth and depth of lexical knowledge and their effect on language skills. It is expected that this research demonstrates a strong correlation between breadth and depth of lexical knowledge and students' speaking ability.

Section Two Theoretical Background 2.1 Literature Review
Studies on the effect of breadth and depth of lexical knowledge on English-major undergraduates' speaking skill have been carried out. instructors and 100 EFL elementary learners in Saudi Arabia. The finding showed that lack of vocabulary knowledge is one of the major factors in students' inability to speak English.

Vol. (5), No (4), Winter 2020 ISSN 2518-6566 (Online) -ISSN 2518-6558 (Print)
967 Hasan (2016) in his article puts emphasis on the effect of lack of vocabulary on English language learners' performance with reference to English departments students at Salahaddin University-Erbil. The study was conducted in three English Departments belonging to the College of Basic Education, College of Education, and College of Languages at Salahaddin University-Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan Region was selected. The participants of the study involved 417 of EFL students. The finding showed that vocabulary is central to English language teaching and learning. Moreover, almost 74% of the undergraduates surveyed suffer from the problem of short of vocabulary in different degrees. The problem of lack of vocabulary has a bad influence on students' performance. Koizumi (2005) in a study examines relationships between productive vocabulary knowledge in terms of size and depth, and speaking performance including (fluency, accuracy, syntactic complexity, and lexical complexity) of Japanese learners of English at the novice level. The results show that speaking performance is mainly related to productive vocabulary knowledge.
Elahe Attar and Hamid Allami (2013) did a research about the effects of teaching lexical collocations on speaking ability of Iranian EFL learners. The participants who were studying at intermediate level were selected. They took Quick Oxford Placement Test and 40 out of 80 were chosen to participate in this study. They were 31 females and 9 males with the age range of 17 to 32. All of them spoke Persian as the same mother language and they had never lived abroad. The findings of this study revealed that teaching lexical collocation is a useful mean to maximize collocation knowledge, having positive effects on Iranian EFL learners" speaking ability. It appears that and for each year of their early life they add on average 1,000 word families and these data are not regular and a large variation would be between individuals. He/she further concludes that these data do not include proper names, abbreviations, compound words, and foreign words. A word family incorporates a root word, its inflected forms, and a small number of logically repeated derived forms (Alireza, 2017, p. 24).

Pronunciation
Pronouncing words wrongly and neglecting using word stress by EFL college students could have impact on speaking fluency and accuracy, for example present as a noun and present as a verb have not the same syllable stress: present /prezənt/ as a noun (stress on the first syllable) and present/prIzent/as a verb (stress on the second syllable).
It can distinguish nouns from verbs, as in an insult, to insult, an increase, to increase.
The sample words illustrate that the nouns have the stress on the first syllable and the verbs have the stress on the second syllable. Pronunciation is one of the most important sub-skills that EFL students have to master in order to communicate appropriately and fluently. Oxford Dictionary states pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. According to Yates (2002) pronunciation is the production of sounds that are used for making meaning. Besides, good pronunciation leads to learning while bad pronunciation promotes to great difficulties in language teaching (Sa'rosdy et al, 2006).

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Throughout this paper, categories of word associations, i.e. synonym, antonym and super ordination are investigated.
Size of vocabulary and repeating the same words are the main problem in this part which are faced by EFL college students' speaking skill. Word association is the best strategy to increase vocabulary. Synonym can be defined as words that have the same meaning. Learning synonyms is a factor in a voiding repeating the same words again and again in speaking English. Antonym is defined as words that have the opposite meaning. Learning antonyms helps to increase EFL learners' vocabulary size and make them to communicate clearly and effectively. Super ordination is an umbrella term that includes within it the meaning of other words such as vegetable for carrot, eggplant, potato, tomato or animal for dog, cat, wolf and fox (Sa'rosdy et al, 2006).

Collocation
This part deals with the following:

Definitions of collocation
The term 'collocation' has its roots in a Latin verb 'collocare' which means 'to set in order / to arrange' (Mahvelati and Mukundan, 2012, p. 205). Collocation describes the relationship between words that often appear together. McCarthy (1990) defines collocation as "a marriage contract between words" "the normal building blocks of fluent spoken discourse". Collocations help us communicate more quickly and efficiently. Collocations are important to language learners. When learners use collocations, they will be better understood (McCarthy,1990). Benson et al. (1997) divide collocation into two categories: lexical and grammatical collocation. A lexical collocation is a phrase containing syntagmatic combinations of content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) such as traffic accident, make mistakes, heavy rain and happily married. A grammatical collocation, on the other hand, is a word combination between a content word (a noun, verb or adjective) and a function / grammatical word (a preposition or particle), and between a content word (a noun or an adjective) and a grammatical structure (to infinitive or that clause). The examples include argument about, by accident, account for, depend on, and interested in.

Defining Morphology
Broadly speaking, morphology is usually defined as the study of the internal structure of words and the rules governing the formulation of words in a language (McCharty, 2002, pp.16). Morphology is the study of word formation (Lieber 2009, pp. 2).

Inflectional and Derivational morphology
Inflectional morphology deals with affixes that do not change the part of speech of the bases to which they are attached. In English, they indicate plurality (-s/-es, -(r) en, vowel changes for plurality), tense makers (-s/-es for simple present tense maker,d/-ed for simple past tense maker, -ing for continuous tense maker), comparative degree (-er, -est). While, derivational morphology deals with affixes that changes part of speech for example, in the word goodness, the addition of the bound morphemeness to the root good changes the word from an adjective (good) to a noun (goodness) (Yule, 2010).

Concept of Speaking Skill
Learning the speaking skill is the most important aspect of learning a foreign language and success is measured based on the ability to perform a conversation in the language. In addition, speaking is the most important skill because it is one of the abilities that are needed to perform a conversation (Mazouzi, 2013).

Defining Speaking
Abdel Salam (2002) defined speaking as a collection of micro-skills which include syntax, grammar, morphology, pragmatics or social language, semantics and phonology. Bygate (1998:23) states speaking is based on interactional skills which involve making decision about communication. Speaking is the communication tool to transform ideas (Conrad & Dunek, 2012:74).

Components of Speaking Skill
The components of speaking skill include the following:

Fluency
Fluency is the main goal of the EFL learners in learning speaking skill.
According to Tumova (2002) fluency depends on the capability of the learners to communicate in the way to be understood and keep the interest of the listener. Also, he states that fluency is the ability to answer coherently by connecting the words and phrases, pronouncing the sounds clearly, and using stress and intonation. Fluency means to speak smoothly and to speak in a steady way without stopping to think of selecting the correct word as well as seconds of silence and how much ah…um…oh is being said throughout the process of speaking. Speaking freely as in daily life without worrying about making mistakes is fluency.

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According to Zhang (2009) using simple language, using correct words and phrases correctly, conveying the speaker's message in an easy, clear and understandable way, speaking according to listener's level, producing comprehensible sentences with no major complications, exposing ideas calmly and spontaneously, arguing persuasively, organizing the oral production both cognitively and physically, manifesting a certain number of hesitations, pauses backtracking and corrections, and using gap-fillers correctly.

2.7.1.2Accuracy
The second sub-skill of speaking performance is accuracy. Focusing on grammatical structure, lexical, collocation and pronunciation can be considered to measure accuracy and completeness of language and speaking and also, words should be used precisely in its context to express the real accuracy. To gain accuracy in terms of lexical means to select suitable words in the suitable contexts. Learners sometimes apply similar words or expressions in various contexts which do not mean similar things. So EFL learners should be able to use words and expressions correctly.
Moreover, in order to speak English language accurately, learners should master phonological rules and they should be aware of the various sounds and their pronunciations. Learners should also know the lexical stress. All of these elements help learners speak the English language easily and effectively (Nunan, 1995). Thornbury (2005) believes that pronunciation as the student's capacity to produce comprehensible utterances to fulfill the task requirements. Dalton (1994) says that the importance of pronunciation includes as distinguish different languages, carrying
Harmer (2001) shows "pitch, intonation, minimal pairs, spelling, rhythm, and stress, as components of pronunciation. Understanding the components of pronunciation is not enough for learning the language but also to convey meanings, learners should be aware of what to pay attention to". Poor pronunciation will make the conversation frustrating and unpleasant for both themselves and their listeners as well.

Grammar
Grammar is a regime of governing the structure of words, phrases and expression in a language. Moreover the aim of grammar is to facilitate the mapping between form and meaning between the edges formed over words or phrases and their denotations in the system's world model. Yule (2010) classified grammar into two parts: descriptive grammar that covers the actual usage of while perspective grammar shows the grammatical structure which is followed.

Correlation between Lexical Knowledge and Speaking Skill.
Speaking is one of the most important skills to be developed and enhanced as means of effective communication. Speaking skill is regarded one of the most difficult aspects of language learning. Also, English speaking is not an easy task for EFL learners because EFL learners should know many significant components like pronunciation, grammar, lexical, fluency, and comprehension (Burns and Joyce, 1997).

Vol. (5), No (4), Winter 2020 ISSN 2518-6566 (Online) -ISSN 2518-6558 (Print)
975 EFL learners' speaking skill is affected by some linguistic components of language like pronunciation, syntax, lexical, and semantics, collocations, word association and psychological factors such as motivation and personality. Furthermore, listening ability is another factor. Doff (1998)  Thornbury (2005) declared that pronunciation is the lowest level of knowledge learner's typically pay attention to. In order to speak English language accurately, learners should master phonological rules and they should be aware of the various

Vol. (5), No (4), Winter 2020 ISSN 2518-6566 (Online) -ISSN 2518-6558 (Print)
976 sounds and their pronunciations. Learners should also know the stress, intonation, and pitch. All of these elements help learners speak the English language easily and effectively.

Participants
Purposive sampling is used to select participants based on the availability of respondents. They all agree to take part in the present study. The participants who were taken as a sample in this study included 20 EFL instructors and were chosen to answer the questionnaire. They were from departments of English in three colleges namely, the College of Basic Education, the College of Education and the College of Language at Salahaddin University-Erbil. The participants' responses to the questionnaire reflect their attitudes towards the effect of vocabulary on their students' speaking performance in the colleges mentioned above. They were 35% females and 65% males with the age range of 35 to 45and their experience of teaching English was between 11-15 years. All of them spoke Kurdish as the thier mother language and they had never lived abroad. The instructors teach the courses vocabulary, conversation, composition, communication, and other subjects. The participants were informed that the stored data would be kept confidential and their identities anonymous.

Study Design
In the present study, quantitative method is implemented. The choice of a quantitative is dictated by the nature of investigation itself which is based on data

Instrument
The questionnaire investigates the degree to which breadth and depth of lexical knowledge has influence on EFL learners' speaking skill. (See appendix). The questionnaire was sent to the instructors by email or it was delivered to them in person during the academic year (2020-2021). (See appendix). Questionnaire consisted 21 items and it was designed on the bases that each item has five options (always), (often), (sometimes), (rarely) and (never). Also, the first part of the questionnaire, instructors were asked to provide information about demographic information such as gender, age, education level, area of specialization and year of experience. The second part of the questionnaire includes the items of the questionnaire which was developed and was based on the relevant literature.
After receiving feedback from respondents, raw data was obtained from the questionnaire. In the case of quantitative method, the data was entered into SPSS in order to analyze it according to the recent academic standard.

Departments in three colleges: College Basic of Education, College of Education and
College of Language Salahaddin University-Erbil.

Collecting Data
In order to obtain required data on instructor's perceptions, the questionnaire was sent to the instructors by email or it was delivered to them in person. The study includes quantitative methods which involved questionnaire of instructors. After
In the case of quantitative method, the data was entered into SPSS in order to analyze it according to the recent academic standard.

The Administration of the Questionnaire
After the validity of the questionnaire had been achieved, the researcher visited English Departments who teach English language at the College of Education, College Basic of Education and College of language-Salahaddin University-Erbil. The researcher selected those instructors who teach the courses vocabulary, conversation, composition, communication, and other subjects. All instructors administrated at nine days. The researcher On 1 May 2020 sent the questionnaire for all instructors by Google form at one day.

Introduction
This section shows the analysis of the data obtained from instructors 'questionnaire.
It can be noticed that if the mean of the item is less than 2.5, it indicates negative value. If the mean of the item is 2.5, it is neutral. If the mean of the item is more than 2.5, it indicates a positive value.

Analyzing the instructors' questionnaire
This section sheds light on the quantitative data that has been collected and analyzed based on the instructors' questionnaire.

Pie chart 1
This pie chart below shows the percentage of male and female. .

Pie chart 2
This pie chart represents the percentages of participants' educational level.

Pie chart 3
The percentages of instructors' years of experience are shown in the subsequent chart.

The result of the Instructors' Questionnaire
The total mean of the instructors' questionnaire is 3.9, which confirms a positive acknowledgement. The subsequent chart is the statistical analysis of all the items of instructors' perceptions.

Discussion
The bar chart shows all items of the instructors' questionnaire including the total mean of all the items which is presented in 22 with the value of 3.9. It can stated that the items as 1, 2, 3 and 4 show a high positive value since the EFL instructors had positive perceptions on the quality of EFL learners' speaking ability depends on the quantity and depth of vocabulary knowledge.
Moreover, Items 5 and 6 are considered to be confirmed positively. Hence, the EFL instructors perceived that correct pronunciation leads the students to be fluent in oral communication.
Also, the items 9, 10 and 11 shows a high positive value this is because the EFL instructors thought that using word associations (synonyms, antonyms and super ordination) leads to avoid repeating the same words again a gain in speaking English. The Total Mean is 3.9

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It is worth mentioning that the items 12, 13 and 14 are in the sense of high positive value because the instructors believed generally use lexical collocations play a significant role in speaking English fluently and accurately.
Item 15 shows a positive value because the instructors believe that productive vocabulary knowledge is essential for speaking spontaneously without too many pauses and repetitions The items 17,18 and 19 show a high positive value since instructors agreed that morphological knowledge enhance students' level of grammatical competence in speaking skill as well as helpful to improve accuracy and fluency in speaking.
On the other hand, Item 7 shows low positive value because the instructors believed that lexical stress is not so much significant factor to being better understood in speaking.
Item 8 displays low positive and they claimed that knowledge of lexical semantics significantly affects speaking skill.
Item 10 reveals low positive and instructors implied that learning antonyms widen students' vocabulary size as a result the students could relatively communicate clearly and effectively.
Item 16 shows a low positive value, therefore the instructors believe that students' achievement in word grammar seem to be partially enhanced students' speaking fluency and accuracy.
Item 21 shows low positive; the instructors partially agreed with this item this is because the efficiency of lexical retrieval does not seem to be so helpful in speaking fluency.

Conclusion
To summarize, the major goal of the present study was to investigate EFL instructors' perceptions of the effect of breadth and depth of lexical knowledge on English-major undergraduates' speaking skill. Based on sample's answers implies that, breadth and depth of lexical knowledge are related on English-major undergraduates' speaking skill. The result of the analysis of the research also implies that when students' breadth and depth of lexical knowledge increases at the same time there is improvement their speaking ability.This study also opens up some interesting questions for further research such as to what extent depth of lexical knowledge impacts on EFL learners' fluency and accuracy in listening skill?

Pedagogical Implications
Despite the fact that the results of the study cannot be generalized to other situations. EFL instructors should concentrate on designing a sufficient amount of both vocabulary depth and breadth tasks in order to help learners increase their vocabulary knowledge and produce reasonable speaking skill. The present study will give a better understanding of the role of vocabulary in language learning, especially in speaking skill. Moreover, EFL instructors should consider teaching vocabulary in two ways: deepening and widening learners' vocabulary knowledge and teach learners to use words in their appropriate context by promoting speaking ability. EFL English language instructors can learn how to utilize speaking tests to observe learners' strengths and weaknesses in depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge construct. Often Sometimes Rarely Never 7. Knowledge of lexical stress is an important factor to being better understood in spoken English.
Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never 8-Knowledge of lexical semantics significantly affects speaking skill.
Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never 9. Learning synonyms is a factor in avoiding repeating the same words again a gain in speaking English.
Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never 10. Learning antonyms helps to increase EFL college students' vocabulary size and make them to communicate clearly and effectively. Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never 11. Superordination and subordination are significant strategies in achieving the growth of vocabulary size and depth in EFL speaking skill.
Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never 12. Using collocation clusters is essential to speak English like a native speaker.

Always
Often Sometimes Rarely Never 13. Using lexical and grammatical collocations play a significant role in speaking English fluently and accurately.
Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never 14. Lack of collocational competence can be more disruptive to speaking fluently.
Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never 15. Productive vocabulary knowledge is essential for speaking spontaneously without too many pauses and repetitions.
Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never 16. Students' competence in word grammar such as (the difference between sentence patterns of tell and say) enhances their speaking fluency and accuracy.
Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never 17. Increasing morphological awareness can be useful as a strategy to improve the speaking ability of EFL learners.
Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never 18. Knowledge of inflectional morphology enhances grammatical competence in speaking skill.
Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never