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Relationship Between Vocabulary Size and Reading Comprehension

Asst. Prof. Preawpan Pringprom, Ph. D Buppha Obchuae

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Background of Problem

How many words do students know?

Inability to guess from the context

Inability to comprehend the

written texts

Inability to decode the meaning of

words

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Research Objectives

There are two main folds of this research objective:

1. To find out the students’ vocabulary sizes

2. To study the relationship between students’ vocabulary size and their English reading comprehension

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Research Questions

1 What is the overall receptive vocabulary size of the students?

2 Is there a significant correlation between students’ scores of the VLT and a score of the Reading Comprehension Test?

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Thirty first-year-students studying EN 111 in academic year 2010 at Bangkok University

Subjects

Research Instruments

1. Vocabulary Level Test (Schmitt. N; Schmitt D & Clapham C (Nation, 2001: 416-420)

2. Reading Comprehension Test

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Vocabulary Knowledge

Two primary dimensions:

Receptive vocabulary refers to a learner’s ability to recognize a word and retrieve its meaning while listening or reading.

Productive vocabulary refers to a learner’s ability to use a word to send a message or express his/her thought appropriately through speaking or writing (Nation, 2006: 24).

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Vocabulary Level Test (VLT)

The bilingual version was based on the original version B of Norbert Schmitt, Diane Schmitt and Caroline Clapham (2001).

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Research Procedures

1. 1st week of the course, the 2000, 3000, and 5000 VLT were administered at the beginning of class time.

2. 2nd week of the course, the RCT was administered at the beginning of class time.

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Data Analysis

Descriptive Statistic was used to find means and standard deviations of the VLT2000, VLT3000, and VLT5000.

Pearson correlation was conducted to analyze the relationship between the subjects’ reading comprehension and their receptive vocabulary size.

Results and Discussion

Levels RCT 2000 3000 5000Number of Items 30 30 30 30

Mean 15.47 15.53 14.37 9.27Standard deviation 5.58 6.23 5.74 5.44

Each word in the test represents 33 words (1000 divided by 30)

• 518 words out of 1000 at the 2000 frequency-words level • 479 words out of 1000 at the 3000 frequency-words level• 310 words out of 1000 at the 5000 frequency-words level

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N = 30

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The subjects’ VLT scores dropped as the word-frequency levels decreased

0

20

40

60

51.78

47.89

30.89

VLT 2000 VLT 3000 VLT 5000

%

N = 30

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At least 95% of text coverage is needed for successful guessing of the meaning of the unknown words (Liu and Nation, 1985). To reach 95% coverage of academic text, a vocabulary size of around 4000 word families is needed, consisting of 2000 high-frequency word, other academic words, technical words, proper nouns, and low frequency words.

Average percentage scores on the VLT

0

20

40

60

51.7847.89

30.89

VLT 2000 VLT 3000 VLT 5000

% N = 30

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Individual’s Profile of Vocabulary Levels of the Test

Subjects 2000 3000 5000

1 6 9 3

2 9 6 8

3 12 12 3

4 11 12 10

5 19 18 12

6 13 11 6

7 14 14 15

8 28 (+) 25 16

9 19 18 13

10 10 11 6

11 12 17 6

12 7 8 3

13 17 14 14

14 22 17 8

15 13 15 5

16 26 25 16

17 8 8 7

18 25 22 16

19 21 20 11

20 19 14 11

21 14 12 4

22 17 16 11

23 20 7 5

24 11 11 6

25 15 14 9

26 11 7 3

27 11 12 6

28 13 14 9

29 13 14 8

*30 30 (+) 30 (+) 28 (+)

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0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

VLT 2000

RC

T

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

VLT 3000

RC

T

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

VLT 5000

RC

T

Relationship Between Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Size

r = 0.684; p = <.0.01 r = 0.779; p = <.0.01 r = 0.571; p = <.0.01

N = 30

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Pedagogical Implications

Vocabulary assessment and instruction should be an important part of every English course, especially at the beginning level.

Vocabulary Strategies

Vocabulary Dictation

Vocab Bookkeeping

ActivitiesTraining

Word parts

Word Families

Prefix-Suffix-Roots

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