University Students’ Comprehension of Multiple Meanings of English Words Across Contexts: An Investigation of Literal, Figurative, Idiomatic, and Grammatical Meanings.

Abstract

This study investigates university students’ comprehension of multiple meanings of English words across different contexts, focusing on literal, figurative, idiomatic, and grammatical meanings. It aimed to assess students’ contextual comprehension, examine differences among the four semantic categories, and compare the performance of third- and fourth-year students. A quantitative descriptive-analytical design was employed with a purposive sample of 45 English Department students (25 third-year and 20 fourth-year). Data were collected through a contextual vocabulary test, with 47 valid items retained after statistical analysis. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Shapiro–Wilk, Mann–Whitney U, Friedman, Spearman’s rho, and Cronbach’s alpha tests in SPSS. The results showed a relatively good overall level of contextual lexical comprehension (M = 34.07/47). Performance across the four categories was similar, with no significant differences among them, χ² = 2.242, p = .524. No significant difference was found between third- and fourth-year students in total scores (U = 212.50, p = .391), although fourth-year students achieved a higher mean rank. The test demonstrated high internal consistency (α = .939), with strong correlations between the semantic categories and the total score (rₛ = .874–.952, p < .001). The findings suggest that students possess relatively good but varied contextual lexical knowledge and that academic progression alone may not substantially increase vocabulary depth. The study recommends explicit instruction exposing learners to multiple contextual uses of the same lexical items to enhance contextual comprehension and vocabulary depth.