Vocabulary Makes Fluent Reading and Comprehension Possible
Source: Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall
Topics: Middle Years (5-9), Reading Comprehension, more...
Sarah recognizes and understands the meaning of almost all the words in text. She reads with better comprehension and greater fluency than her classmates who recognize and understand fewer words. A large reading vocabulary makes it possible for Sarah to read with expression and good phrasing and to concentrate on comprehension (August, 2006; Eldredge, 2005; Kame’enui & Bauman, 2004; Roberts & Neal, 2004).
A large reading vocabulary frees the mind to think about meaning. Freeing the mind is important because attention is limited. Readers either concentrate on figuring out words or think about meaning, but they cannot do both at once. The more attention that goes into figuring out the identity of words, the less attention the reader is able to direct to comprehension. If the text has too many unfamiliar words, readers divert so much attention away from comprehension that they cannot make sense of what they read.
The relationship between vocabulary and comprehension is reciprocal. As the child’s vocabulary grows so the child’s ability to understand text also improves (Martin-Chang & Levy, 2005). In the other direction, as the child’s comprehension improves the child reads more difficult text. More difficult text introduces new words. The more new words the child encounters, the greater the likelihood that these words will be added to the child’s reading vocabulary.
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© 2008, Allyn & Bacon, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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