THE CORRELATION BETWEEN VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AND

READING COMPREHENSION LEVELS AMONG SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

STUDENTS

I. THE PROBLEM AND RELATED LITERATURE

Introduction

Reading contributes to the overall learning competence, encompassing all four

skills. It allows information processing and understanding of meaning and contexts

that gives background knowledge to support ideas. The link between vocabulary and

the goal of reading comprehension is profound. The rationale for a focus on

vocabulary is obvious: if you do not know the meaning of a decoded word then you

will not be able to make sense of what you read (Kenny, 2017)

Another relationship between reading and vocabulary is basically the mutual

improvement and growth. More reading activities expands and grows the vocabulary

enabling a reader to read a wide range of texts. The case is a person is likely to

develop a stronger vocabulary by reading and reading a wide range of materials. In

order for reading and vocabulary to have this mutually beneficial relationship,

however, a reader must be sure to actually try to improve his or her vocabulary while

reading by learning new words (Wiesen, 2020).

Mirasol (2018) claims that reading instruction has five components which

include phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition, vocabulary, and

comprehension. One cannot deny the fact that these five components are important.

These components of reading instructions allow the students acquire necessary skills

to be proficient readers.
 Vocabulary is an essential part of reading. Without a sufficient level of

vocabulary knowledge, communication would suffer. When we intend to convey a

message, we may be able to do this without the correct form of structure but it would

be impossible to convey a message when we do not have at least a basic knowledge

of words. Nowadays with the growing use of communicative approach to teaching,

the need for a sufficient word list to be accessible when students try to communicate

becomes obvious (Agdam & Sadeghi, 2014).

According to Herber, 1970; Snider, 1988; and McCormick, 1992; as cited in

Basaraba, et al (2014), reading comprehension can be defined generally as the ability

to extract meaning or learn from text. This general definition, however,encourages

acceptance of an outdated, simplistic view of reading comprehension as a skill. The

idea that there are different levels of reading comprehension, each of which imposes

different cognitive demands on the reader and requires varying levels of interaction

with the text, is not new. This theory proposes a continuum of reading comprehension

skills in which a student must first proficiently engage in tasks of literal

comprehension before engaging in deeper interactions with the text, such as those

prompted by inferential and evaluative understanding. More specifically, literal

comprehension tasks require readers to simply retrieve information that has been

explicitly stated in a passage Inferential comprehension tasks require readers to

understand relationships that may not be explicitly stated in the passage but are

essential for passage understanding, such as the connection between two events in a

narrative or understanding a character’s motive for a particular action. Evaluative

comprehension tasks require readers to analyze and critically interpret the text based

on their prior knowledge and experiences.

Theoretical Framework

This future research will use Schema theory as an underlying theory noting that

having schemata establishes connection between preexisting and existing memories.

The students’ scale of vocabulary size and stored knowledge on word associations

will be sought to have relevant connection and relationship with the development and

usage of effective literal, inferential, and evaluative interpretation of words and texts

in reading comprehension.

Schema Theory (Barlett, 1932)

Vocabulary Acquisition

Vocabulary Size Word Association Knowledge

Reading Comprehension

Literal Inferential Evaluative

Conceptual Framework

This study will be focusing on seeking correlation between vocabulary

acquisition and reading comprehension levels. Vocabulary knowledge

sub-components, vocabulary size and word association, will be tested on affecting

reading comprehension levels, literal, inferential, and evaluative.

Reading Comprehension Level

Vocabulary Acquisition

Vocabulary Size

Word Association Literal

Inferential

Evaluative

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to find out the correlation between vocabulary acquisition and

reading comprehension levels of Senior high school students. Specifically, this study

aims to find answers to the following questions:

1. What are the students’ vocabulary size?

2. What are the students’ level on word association?

 3. Is there any significant correlation between vocabulary acquisition

and reading comprehension performance of Senior high school students?

Specifically, does it affect the students’ level of knowledge on-

a. Literal;

b. Inferential; and

c. Evaluative reading comprehension?

II. METHOD

The aim of this study is find evidence of any significant relationship between

vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension levels with a total of five variables

indicated: vocabulary size and word association knowledge for vocabulary acquisition,

and literal, inferential, and evaluative levels for reading comprehension.

Research Design

This study is a qualitative research, using descriptive statistics to illustrate and

explain any correlation between vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension

levels. Convenience sampling will be used and respondents will have a three session

for data gathering, having a pre-test, a reading session, and a post test of the set of

instruments.

Respondents

Target respondents of this study are Senior High School students from the

Humanities and Social Sciences track of Davao City National High School, Poblacion

District, Davao City. Particularly, the grade 12 students under the chosen track. The
estimated total population of the respondents is the gross population of the schools’

HUMSS grade 12 students for S.Y. 2021-2022.

Sampling Design

This study uses convenience sampling considering the accessibility of the

respondents’ school from the location of the researcher. The conduct of the study will

come into batches, depending on the number of sections under HUMSS track. A

section will be divided into two batches using random design sampling. First half of

randomly chosen respondents will sit in for the tests and is considered as the first

batch, while the remaining random respondents are the second batch.

Instruments

A total of five variables are involved in this study: vocabulary size, word-

association knowledge, literal, inferential, and evaluative reading comprehension

level. The instruments that the researcher will use are Vocabulary Size test by Nation,

Word-Association Test, and a Reading Comprehension Test that encompasses the

three reading comprehension levels.

Data Gathering Procedure

Before the conduct of the study, a letter for consent of research conduct will be

sought approval from the Principal of Davao City National High school. An informed

consent form will be introduced to the respondents, including the background,

objectives of the study, and their rights in participating. The data

gathering procedure will come into a one-day with three sessions per batch: first, a pre-

test of the Vocabulary Size Test, Word-Association Test, and Reading comprehension

Test will be answered by the respondents. This to measure their level of knowledge

towards the variables. Second, a reading session will be conducted wherein pre-reading,

while-reading, and post-reading activities will be given to stimulate the activation of

Schema of the respondents. Lastly, a post-test assessment will be conducted with

similar Vocabulary Size test, Word-association test, and Reading comprehension test

conducted in the pre-test. Not different assessments will be used to relatively measure if

there are improvements and increase of vocabulary knowledge after the conduct of the

reading session.

Statistical Tools

The study will be using the SPSS 17.0 software to show relative results of the

three comprehension levels and to measure the correlation between vocabulary size

and word association knowledge on Reading comprehension, the Pearson Correlation

Analysis will be use to illustrate and present the results.

Ethical Considerations

Validity

The aim of this study is to seek validation of having correlation between

vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension: literal, inferential, and evaluative

levels.

Informed Consent and Voluntary Participation

The informed consent made understood and signed by the respondents is to

inform them of the background and aim of the study, the flow of the data gathering,

and their rights towards the conduct of the study such limitations and privacy requests.
This consent will also be used as evidence of their voluntary participation in which

they can withdraw any time they wish to.

Anonymity and Confidentiality

Participants are given anonymity of identity for privacy and will be given code

names for identification. This will give sense of security for the participants keeping

them out of risk for exposing responses related to the study. The data gathered will be

treated will utmost confidentiality and be used for research purposes only.