A Study On Correlations Of Vocabulary Size And Vocabulary Depth With Reading Comprehension

The present study aims to reexamine the correlations between vocabulary size (VS),depth of vocabulary knowledge (DVK) and reading comprehension (RC), especially tofind out which aspect of vocabulary knowledge (VS or DVK) is more closely correlatedwith RC. At the same time, the study provides some teaching and study suggestions forteachers and non-English majors who have not taken College English Test Band4(CET4).The study is theoretically based on the vocabulary knowledge framework andvocabulary knowledge tests of David Qian (2002,2004) and John Read (2000).Thesubjects are115first-year non-English majors from Huazhong University of Science andTechnology. After4invalid scores were removed, the remaining ones were as raw dataand it was analyzed by Pearson Correlation Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis inSPSS17.0. The analyses show that there is a comparatively correlation between VS andRC while there is a lower correlation between DVK and RC; that although there is nosignificant correlation between DVK and RC, the three components of DVK, namelysynonym, collocation and context use, are very significantly correlated with RC; thatboth VS and DVK have a predicting power to RC but VS has a more predicting power toRC than that of DVK; that there is also a comparatively significant correlation betweenVS and DVK.The findings of the study once again proved that there is a positive correlationbetween vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension and that correlation betweenVS and RC is higher than that between DVK and RC, which provides important data，results and suggestions on researches in second language vocabulary acquisition. Besides,the study provides some teaching implications in EFL teaching. Firstly, teachers andlearners should not only focus on quantity but also attach much importance to quality， because there is still positive correlation between VS and RC.Although the value is lowbut it is worth great attention. Secondly, teachers should be aware of student’s presentlevel of language competence and adjust teaching contents and methods to the level.Thirdly, teachers may provide students with strategies and skills of solving problems insome important English tests such as CET4or CET6.