Teaching Word Meanings to Students at Different Reading Ability: A Controlled Assessment of the Contextual-Based Vocabulary Instruction on Reading Comprehension

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of contextual-based vocabulary instruction on reading comprehension of seventh-grade students at different reading ability levels in social studies. The Sentence Verification Technique test consisted of 16-items was used to determine participants’ reading comprehension skills. In addition, a semi-structured interview form was used to describe participants’ perceptions and experiences related to the vocabulary intervention program activities. The experimental condition received a contextual-based vocabulary instruction intervention program for eight weeks in 10 sessions; in contrast to the control condition participated in a wide reading program. As a result, this study yielded two findings: First, the results indicated that teaching students how to use contextual analysis to infer word meanings from context improved significantly their own reading comprehension scores. Second, the qualitative findings showed that poor readers could be able unlock the complexity of the meanings of unknown words and use the cognitive strategies that required to overcome their reading difficulties while reading through explicit instruction. The results suggested that it seemed as though the context-based vocabulary instruction used in this study to improve reading comprehension scores was a fairly powerful procedure for all students, both poor readers and average–high readers in the experimental condition.