“The study of Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension

among the Grade 10 students of the Holy Cross of Agdao”

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Researchers:

Andre Michael Capuyan

Kc Mae Nacilla

Simon Odchigue

Reighn Tagilansang

Emmanuel Galo

Marc Ramos

Ava Nardo

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Submitted to:

Mrs. Carmela E. Sun

Language Teacher

Date:
Background of the Study

So do students really understand what they are reading? Are they able to express
verbally or in written communication what they have read? Understanding English
Language will never be easy without learning its concepts and principles and because it
contains so many words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings in this
section of English comes the part where we need to hone our vocabulary and reading
comprehension skills.

Vocabulary learning is an essential part in foreign language learning as the meanings

of new words are very often emphasized, whether in books or in classrooms. It is also
central to language teaching and is of paramount importance to a language learner.

Reading comprehension is a skill that is critical in the educational success of all

individuals. Without adequate reading comprehension skills, students can struggle in many
subject areas. Reading comprehension is an important skill needed for all subject areas of
school. Subjects, other than reading or literature, where comprehension skills are
significantly important include science, social studies and math.

To generalize vocabulary focuses on the recognition of words and identification of its

meaning while reading comprehension is all about the understanding and giving meaning to
words. Without vocabulary reading comprehension cannot take place, for reading
comprehension is dependent to the other.

We researchers chose to research and to study about Vocabulary Acquisition and

Reading Comprehension because it is a common problem among the people who lacks the
skill to comprehend a statement or text very well because of the little amount of vocabulary
that they know. Through this study it will make us know why people will have such
misunderstandings in our society.
 In the Philippines Vocabulary Acquisition starts in the pre-school years of a Filipino
child, in that period the children gives meaning in everything he/she sees in the world and
tonight by his/her parents. As the child grows his/her vocabulary builds and as vocabulary
builds he/she can then comprehend what he/she reads.
STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

1. What is the level of Vocabulary Acquisition among the Grade 10 students of the Holy
Cross of Agdao in terms of:

1.1 Context Clues

1.2 Semantic Clues?

2. What is the level of Reading Comprehension among the Grade 10 students of the
Holy Cross of Agdao in terms of:

2.1 Summarizing

2.2 Synthesizing?

3. Is there any significant relationship between Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading

Comprehension among the Grade 10 students of the Holy Cross of Agdao?

4. Is there any significant difference between Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading

Comprehension among the Grade 10 students of the Holy Cross of Agdao?
Hypothesis

1. There is no significant relationship between Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading

Comprehension among the Grade 10 Students in Holy Cross of Agdao.

2. There is no significant difference Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension

among the Grade 10 Students in Holy Cross of Agdao.
Review of Related Literature

Vocabulary Acquisition

Vocabulary Acquisition is learning and understanding new terminology to such a

degree that it can be used accurately in oral and written communication. Between the ages
of two and five, children learn an estimated 1500 new words every year, or about 5 words a
day (Beck & McKeown, 1991).

Language Acquisition

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to

perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to
communicate. Language acquisition is one of the quintessential human traits, because non-
humans do not communicate by using language. Language acquisition usually refers to first-
language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language. This is
distinguished from second-language acquisition, which deals with the acquisition (in
both children and adults) of additional languages

In Linguistic who are interested in child language acquisition for many years question
how language is acquired, Lidz et Al states "The question of how these structures are
acquired, then, is more properly understood as the question of how a learner takes the
surface forms in the input and converts them into abstract linguistic rules and
representations."[3] So we know language acquisition involves structures, rules and
representation. The capacity to successfully use language requires one to acquire a range of
tools including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an extensive vocabulary.
Language can be vocalized as in speech or manual as in sign.

 Vocabulary

A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually

developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and
acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in
learning a second language.

 MORPHOLOGY

Morphology is the study of words, how they are formed, and their relationship to
other words in the same language. It analyzes the structure of words and parts of words,
such as stems, root words, prefixes, and suffixes. Morphology also looks at parts of speech,
intonation and stress, and the ways context can change a word's pronunciation and
meaning. Morphology differs from morphological typology, which is the classification of
languages based on their use of words and lexicology, which is the study of words and how
they make up a language's vocabulary.

 Syntax

Syntax is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of
sentences in a given language, specifically word order and punctuation. The term syntax is
also used to refer to the study of such principles and processes. The goal of many
syntacticians is to discover the syntactic rules common to all languages.

 Lexis

Lexis or lexicon is the complete set of all possible words in a language. In this sense,
child, children, child's and children's are four different words in the English lexicon. In
systemic-functional linguistics, a lexis or lexical item is the way one calls a particular thing or
a type of phenomenon. Since lexis from a systemic-functional perspective is a way of
calling, it can be realized by multiple grammatical words such as "The White House", "New
York City" or "heart attack". Moreover, since a lexis is a way of calling, different words such
as child, children, child's and children's may realize the same lexical item.

Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension - is as the level of understanding of a text/message. This

understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written, and how

they trigger knowledge outside the text/message. Comprehension is a "creative,

multifaceted process" dependent upon four language skills: phonology, syntax, semantics,
and pragmatics. Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and
effortlessly. It is also determined by an individual's cognitive development, which is "the
construction of thought processes". Some people learn through education or instruction and
others through direct experiences.

Between 1969 and to about 2000 a number of "strategies" were devised for teaching
students to employ self-guided methods for improving reading comprehension. In 1969

Anthony Manzo designed and found empirical support for the ReQuest, or Reciprocal
Questioning Procedure, it was the first method to convert emerging theories of social and
imitation learning into teaching methods through the use of a talk rotation between
students and teacher called cognitive modeling.

Since the turn of the 21st century, comprehension lessons usually consist of
students answering teachers' questions, writing responses to questions on their own, or
both, the whole group version of this practice also often included "Round-robin reading",
wherein teachers called on individual students to read a portion of the text. In the last
quarter of the 20th century, evidence accumulated that the read-test methods were more
successful assessing rather than teaching comprehension.

Theoretical Framework
Conceptual Framework

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Vocabulary Acquisition Reading Comprehension

 Context Clues  Summarizing

 Semantic Clues  Synthesizing

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework Showing the Variables of the Study

Significance of the Study
Definition of Terms

Vocabulary Acquisition

Vocabulary Acquisition is learning and understanding new terminology to such a

degree that it can be used accurately in oral and written communication.

Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the ability to read text, process it, and understand its
meaning. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are
written, and how they trigger knowledge outside the text/message

Grade 10 Students

This are the students involved in making the research and the ones who are being
researched for.

Holy Cross of Agdao

 A catholic diocesan private institution offering secondary education; this is the school
where the students are studying. It is the school being studied and observed regarding
Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension.

References