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PNU Reading Society
Department of Reading and Literacy
College of College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature
Philippine Normal University
Manila

Notes on Correcting Basic Reading Subskills Deficit: Vocabulary, Syntax, and Semantics
Prepared by Prof. Roderick Motril Aguirre

I. Introduction
Words are very powerful tool in communicating our ideas and feelings to other people. It helps us be
understood by other people and we, in turn, understand others. It is only then fitting that we should
know the words that use in order to properly communicate our thoughts without being misunderstood,
and, eventually, become effective communicators.
The sets of words that you understand through reading and listening, and sets of words you use
through speaking and writing constitute our vocabulary. Words that you do not understand and do not
use are not part of your vocabulary. This means that if you know and use only a few words, it will be
quite difficult for you to communicate what is inside your mind and I tell you it is quite frustrating. To
avoid this, you need to improve and expand your vocabulary through reading. A good vocabulary and
good reading go hand in hand. Unless you know the meaning of words, you will have difficulty in
understanding what is read. And the more you read the more words you will add to your vocabulary.
Read the following statement and ask yourself if you understand the sentence. If you don’t, ask yourself
why.
A single lexical item has many concepts attached to it and therefore can be conjugated
further as to their focus.

Why do you think you are able to understand the sentence above? What about if you don’t, why
do you think you are having difficulty understanding it? A reader who knows the meaning of lexical
item, concepts, conjugated will most likely be able to understand the sentence, but a reader who does not
know these words will most likely have difficulty understanding it.
Vocabulary is defined as a set of words used in a language, book, content area, or by an author
and words known to an individual (Gunning, 2003; McKeown & Curtis, 1987). Our vocabulary consists
of the individual words we understand or know the meanings of. Therefore, words that we do not
understand are not part of our vocabulary.
Authors utilize words to convey their thoughts via the text. If the vocabulary used by the author
is not within the vocabulary of the target readers, language homophily will be greatly compromised
resulting to miscomprehension or no comprehension at all. That’s why readers must be taught
vocabulary knowledge and strategies indirectly or directly (Gunning, 2003).
Children learn the meanings of most words indirectly, through everyday experiences with oral and
written language and although a great deal of vocabulary is learned indirectly, some vocabulary should
be taught directly. Vocabulary instruction, therefore, should focus on important words (key words to
help readers make sense of the text), useful words (words they will encounter often), and difficult words
(words with multiple meanings, idiomatic words, etc.).

Vocabulary1 plays a fundamental role in the reading process, and contributes greatly to a reader's comprehension.
A reader cannot understand a text without knowing what most of the words mean. Students learn the meanings of
most words indirectly, through every day experiences with oral and written language. Other words are learned
through carefully designed instruction.

Notes:
 People who do not know the meanings of words are most probably poor readers.
 Reading depends largely on word-meaning knowledge.
 Readers create images and pictures based on their word knowledge.
 Words evoke feelings, images, attitudes and ideas.

II. Remedial Vocabulary Instruction

Vocabulary is initially acquired in four ways:

 Incidentally,through reading and conversation
 Through direct instruction, as when a teacher or
auto-instructional program is used intentionally
build vocabulary power

1
Vocabulary. Reading Rockets. Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/vocabulary
  Through self-instruction, as when words are looked up in a dictionary or their meaning are sought from
others in a conscious manner.
 Through mental manipulation while thinking, speaking ,and writing

Isabelle Beck, Margaret McKeown, and Richard Omanson (1987) characterize these levels of knowledge
of word meaning as follows:
 No knowledge  Need to hesitate to remember a meaning
 General information level  Easy recognition and full knowledge
 Narrow recognition (usually context-bound)

Considerations in remedial vocabulary instruction

Connect vocabulary instruction to the natural processes of word learning, the literature on vocabulary
acquisition tends to divide the teaching of vocabulary into five phases. these are:
a. Disposition – opening the student’s mind and will to engage new words.
b. Integration – establishing ties between the meaning of a new word and the student’s existing
knowledge.
c. Repetition – provisions for practice distributed over time, as well as opportunities for frequent
encounters with the word in similar and differing contexts.
d. Interaction and meaningful use – social situations conducive to using new words in interactions
with others and, thus, mentally referencing new words in listening, reading, writing, and speaking.
e. Self-instruction – maintaining an awareness of new words outside the classroom.

III. Concept-Based Approach to Vocabulary Building

a. Identify the relevant and irrelevant features of the concept in question.
b. Provide examples of the concept.
c. Provide examples of irrelevant but loosely related concepts with which it might be compared.
d. Relate the concept by some possible smaller or subordinating concepts.
e. Relate or categorize the concept by some possible larger or superordinating concepts.
f. Relate or categorize the concept alongside equal or coordinating terms.

IV. Subjective Approach to Vocabulary (SAV)

a. Identify two to four words to be taught or pretaught if SAV is used as a prereading activity. If a word
list is used, be sure to include as many words as possible that impart concepts and feelings that you
would wish students to learn.
b. The teacher tells the student the full meaning of a word, much as it might be found in a dictionary. It is
recorded in a Word Study Journal as the “objective” or dictionary meaning.
c. The teacher asks the student, “What does this word remind you of?” or “What do you picture or think
of when you hear this word?” Explain that discussion of a personal association with a word can be
very helpful in remembering and clarifying its meaning.
d. The teacher talks the student through this personal search for meaning by asking further clarifying
questions, and in group situations by pointing out those images suggested that seem most vivid. The
teacher may add his or her own images appear vague. Students are then directed to write some
“subjective” or personal associations for the new word under the previously written dictionary
definition in their journals. Drawings can be added.
e. Silent reading follows next when SAV is used as prereading vocabulary development. When it is
being used for general vocabulary development, students are given 5 to 10 minutes to study and
rehearse the new and previously recorded words.
f. The teacher let the student close the Word Study Journal and asks him/her the meanings of the
words studied that day and a few others from previous days. This step can be tied to seat exercises
in conventional workbooks such as crossword puzzles, category games, etc. This manipulation and
reinforcement step can be made easier by selecting the words to be taught from the exercise
material.

V. Motor Imaging
It appears that even the highest forms of vocabulary and concept learning have psychomotor foundations,
or equivalents. Hence, motor movements associated with certain stimuli can become interiorized as a
“symbolic meaning” (Piaget 1963 in Manzo and Manzo1993). There are three considerable advantages to
knowing this where remediation is concerned:
1. First, since physical-sensory or proprioceptive learning can be interiorized, they also can be
self-stimulating and; as such, they are easier to rehearse and recall with the slightest
mental reminder, as well as from external stimulation.
2. Second, proprioceptive learning is so basic to human learning that it is common to all
learners, fast and slow, and hence, ideal for heterogeneously grouped classes.
3. Third, the act of identifying and acting out a word becomes a life experience in itself with
the word – a value that Frederick Duffellmeyer (1980) in Manzo and Manzo (1993)
demonstrated when he successfully taught youngsters words by an “experiential”
approach.
PROCEDURE
a. Take a difficult word from the text, write it on the chalkboard, pronounce it, and tell what it means.
b. Ask students to imagine a simple pantomime for the word meaning (“How could you show someone
what this word means with just your hands or a gesture?”)
c. Tell students that when you give a signal, they will do their gesture pantomimes simultaneously.
d. Select the most common pantomime observed. Demonstrate it all to the students, saying the word
while doing the pantomime.
 e. Repeat each new word, this time directing the class to do the pantomime while saying a brief
meaning or simple synonym.
f. Let the students encounter the word in the assigned reading material.
g. Try to use the pantomime casually whenever the word is used for a short time thereafter.

VI. Conclusions

Reading teachers need to understand that reading is a macro skill with subskills subsumed under it and these
subskills have no hierarchy or degrees of importance. It would do reading teachers well to consider points of
agreement, along with the following instructional guidelines (Strickland 1998 cited in Gunning, 2003 and in Vacca,
Vacca, and Gove, 1991):

 Skills and meaning should never be separated. Instructional techniques that help children understand and
use the alphabetic code should be applied hand in hand with those that guide students in reading
comprehension and thoughtful response to literature and the effective use of the writing process.
 Instruction is systematic when it is planned, deliberate in application, and proceeds in an orderly manner.
This does not mean a rigid progression of one-size-fits-all teaching.
 Intensive instruction on any particular skill or strategy should be based on need. Thus, intensity will vary
both with individuals and groups.
 There is no substitute for ongoing documentation and monitoring of learning to determine the order in
which skills should be addressed and the level of intensity required to help a child or group of children
succeed in a particular area. The use of running records and analyses of invented spelling serve this
purpose well.
 To track specific goals and objectives within an integrated language-arts framework, teachers must know
the instructional objectives their curriculum requires at the grade level they teach. They also should be
extremely familiar with the objectives at the grade levels above and below theirs. Alignment of curricular
goals with instructional standards and assessment helps give everyone involved (teachers,
administrators, and parents) a clear sense of direction.

VII. References

Bond, Guy L. et al. 1984. Reading Difficulties. Their Diagnosis and Correction. New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall,
Inc.

Crystal, David. 1987. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

De Saussure, Ferdinand. 1996. Course in General Linguistics. Chicago and La Salle, Illinois, USA: Carus
Publishing Company

Ekwall, Eldon and Shanker, James. 1988. Diagnosis and Remediation of the Disabled Reader. Massachussetts,
USA: Allyn and Bacon.

Gunning, Thomas G. (2003). Creating Literacy Instruction for All Children (4 th ed.) NY, USA: Pearson Education,
Inc.

Hermosa, Nemah N. 2002. The Psychology of Reading.UP, Diliman: University of the Philippines Open University

Hittleman, Daniel R. 1978. Developmental Reading: A Psycholinguistic Perspective. Chicago, USA: Rand McNally
College Publishing Company

Jannedy, Stefanie, Poletto, Robert, and Weldon, Tracey (editors). 1994. Language Files (7th Edition). Columbus,
USA: Ohio State University Press.

Manzo, Anthony and Manzo, Ula. 1993. Literacy Disorders. Holistic Diagnosis and Remediation. Australia:
Wadsworth Thompson Learning.