THE EFFECT OF CULTURAL AWARENESS AND HEMISPHERIC PREFERENCE ON SERBIAN EFL LEARNERS' VOCABULARY PROFICIENCY

Given the scarcity of research in vocabulary acquisition in Serbian EFL scientific context, the present paper aims at examining the impact of two factors, cultural awareness and hemispheric preference, on Serbian secondary school EFL learners' vocabulary proficiency. In order to answer the proposed research questions and test the hypotheses, we conducted a questionnaire, and tested students' hemispheric preference and vocabulary proficiency by means of instruments employed in several previous studies. The employed linear regression analysis proved cultural awareness to be statistically significant predictor of students' performance on the implemented vocabulary test, hence proving the hypothesis that more positive attitude towards the target culture leads to more successful command of the target vocabulary. However, the hypothesis regarding the effect of hemispheric preference on vocabulary proficiency was rejected since the results proved to be not statistically significant, even though negative correlation was noted, i.e. left hemispheric dominance pointing to better performance of vocabulary tests, thus further research with a modified testing design may provide more valid conclusions. In the final section of the paper we underline the pedagogical implications of the present paper, as well as possible limitations to be improved in future studies.