A Correlative Study Of Breadth And Depth Of Vocabulary Knowledge And English Reading Comprehension Of Senior High School Students

Vocabulary is the basis of language and performs an important function in language learning and the development of language learners'language proficiency.The breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge is also an important basis for foreign language learners to learn a language.Reading is one of the essentional ways for people to understand the outside world and an important part of foreign language learning,and reading is closely related to vocabulary.Scholars have never stopped exploring the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension.Due to the different vocabulary knowledge framwork and experimental researcher objects,the research results are not the same.In order to explore the relationship between vocabulary knowldge and reading comprehension of senior high school students,this thesis mainly explores the following three research questions:(1)What effects does the breadth of vocabulary knowledge have on reading comprehension?(2)What effects does the depth of vocabulary knowledge have on reading comprehension?(3)Of the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge,which affects more on reading comprehension?In this study,based on the lexical framework established by Nation(2001)and Qian(1998).Vocabulary knowledge can be divided into breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge.The subjects are ninety students from class five and class six in Grade three of a senior high school whom are tested six times and an semi-structure interview was conducted,namely,Vocabulary Level Test(VLT),Word Associate Test(WAT)and Reading Comprehension Test(RCT).Vocabulary Level Test(VLT)is designed by Nation.Word Associates Test(WAT)is selected to test the depth of vocabulary knowledge,which is designed by Read in 1998 and the Reading Comprehension Test is done by the adoption of the test for the National College Entrance Examination of 2018.Quantitative research uses Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis with SPSS.17.0 software,qualitative research uses semi-structured interviews.Quantitative and qualitative research methods are used to explore the correlation among breadth and depth of vocabulary knowedge and reading comprehension on senior high school students.The results of the research are summed up as following:1)The breadth of vocabulary knowledge is positively correlated with reading comprehension,the wider the breadth of vocabulary knowledge they command,the better their reading performance will be.2)The depth of vocabulary knowledge is also positively correlated with reading comprehension.To a large extent,it can also affect reading comprehension.The more depth of vocabulary knowledge the students gain,the better their reading comprehension will be and the deeper they will understand the whole text will be.Meaning and collocation in the vocabulary depth are also correlated with reading comprehension,showing a positive correlation.Meaning correlation is higher than collocation.The more meanings the students know,the more they understand the texts.3)For reading comprehension,the correlation and predictive ability of the breadth of vocabulary knowledge are higher than that of the depth of vocabulary knowledge.The results of this study further confirm the importance of vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension.The breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge are significantly related to reading comprehension,but the correlation between depth of vocabulary knowledge is lower than the breadth of vocabulary knowledge.Thereuopon,in future English teaching and learning,teachers should pay more attention to the breadth of vocabulary knowledge.By balancing the development of the breadth and the depth of vocabulary knowledge,reading comprehension can be improved quickly.