Decoding + Vocabulary= Reading Comprehension

The article "Vocabulary: A Critical Component of Comprehension" (Joshi, 2005) explores the crucial role vocabulary knowledge plays in reading comprehension.  In this article, Joshi laments that we need more research to see how vocabulary affects reading comprehension, but explains that a synthesis of research shows that there is a causal relationship--that those with poor vocabulary knowledge also have poorer reading comprehension skills and vice versa.  Compounding the issue is what is known as the Matthew Effect--the idea that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In reading, the better comprehenders read more widely, and their vocabulary increases.  Poorer comprehenders avoid reading (or read easier materials) and do not make gains in vocabulary.  Thus, the gulf widens.

Joshi discusses ways of teaching vocabulary, though noting that most vocabulary knowledge isn't directly taught.  Rather, it is acquired with each contact with a word, and, as neural network models would argue, each time the word is encountered in context, the meaning of that word is strengthened in memory. 

Nevertheless, teachers are urged to continue teaching word meanings and other vocabulary knowledge; however, they should abandon the ineffective practice of having students look up word meanings in the dictionary for a test on Friday.  Rather, strategies such as teaching the use of context clues, teaching prefixes, suffixes, and root words, and teaching the etymology of a word are recommended.  Also, graphic organizers, such as those found at Inspiration, are particularly effective tools when teaching word meanings.  Finally, instructional focus should be on Tier 2 words, words that are content words and are comprised of the 60% of our English words that are derived from Latin.

Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R.) and Drop Everything and Write (D.E.A.W.) are two instructional practices that have resulted in vocabulary gains for students involved.  Both wide reading (receptive) and wide-writing (expressive) increases vocabulary, a fact I find encouraging, as I LOVE to write and frequently incorporate writing in my classes.  Now I have further reason to do so.

Reflection:  Connection to Reading Model

In Adams Model, the meaning processor can affect the orthographic processor in that, as a word is read, if it is recognized as a word stored in memory (either orally or in print), it is more quickly activated.  If a word is unknown, word recognition is not speeded by the activation of the word.  Further, comprehension is hindered because the word's meaning is not activated.  Perfetti's Verbal Efficiency Theory and LaBerge and Samuels's Automaticity Theory both also assume automaticity in retrieving word meanings as a condition necessary for skillful reading.    The importance of vocabulary was added to Gough's Simple View of reading when it was revised to account for fluency, now known as the Componential Model of Reading and explains that vocabulary is part of the comprehension construct, and "influences comprehension" (p.210).  Most models of reading include some sort of "semantic processor," establishing that vocabulary knowledge is, indeed, a key component in reading comprehension.

Question???????
The idea that D.E.A.W. was positively correlated with vocabulary development "suggests a yet-to-be-tested hypothesis--that encouraging writing improves reading comprehension" (p. 215).  Has this hypothesis been tested?  This is an area of study that I am very drawn to.





Joshi, R.M. (2005). Vocabulary: A critical component of comprehension. Reading &


      Writing Quarterly, 21, 209-219.