A Study Of The Correlations Between Vocabulary Knowledge And Reading Comprehension In IELTS

Vocabulary knowledge is one of the main elements in L2teaching and acquisition.Among the multi-dimensions of vocabulary knowledge put forward by previousresearchers, vocabulary breadth and vocabulary depth are the most prominent. In L2teaching and acquisition, vocabulary knowledge is related to reading comprehension tosome extent. In most of the researches about the relationship between vocabularyknowledge and reading comprehension, the correlation between vocabulary depth andreading comprehension is higher than that between vocabulary breadth and readingcomprehension.However, is that the case with reading comprehension in IELTS? The presentresearcher has been inspired to think that it might be more specific and practical to explorethe correlation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension in IELTSinstead of reading in the general sense since she taught vocabulary and IELTS reading in atraining school on a part-time basis.In order to test vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth and reading comprehension inIELTS, three corresponding tests with high authority are chosen: Vocabulary Levels Test,Word Associates Test, and Reading Comprehension section taken from IELTS. They formone systematic test when presented to the subjects. And the50subjects are from one classwith nearly the same English level. The scores obtained from the three tests function asthe original statistics and are then put into the SPSS12.0for further analyses.The major findings can be summarized:1) There is a positive correlation betweenvocabulary breadth and vocabulary depth;2) There are positive correlations betweenvocabulary breadth and reading comprehension in IELTS as well as the correlationbetween vocabulary depth and reading comprehension in IELTS. But compared with thecorrelation between vocabulary depth and reading comprehension in IELTS, the correlation between vocabulary breadth and reading comprehension in IELTS is moresignificant;3) The teachers and students should lay more emphasis on the enlargement ofvocabulary breadth in the preparation of reading comprehension in IELTS.