The importance of vocabulary skills for the enhancement of reading comprehension level among freshmen college of marketing management free essay sample

A person’s vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning. However, vocabulary is the center of language and the important component of any language. The more the vocabulary the students have, the easier the student develops the sentence. Students often get difficulties to understand what they read because they often find some difficult words in text. Reading without meaning will make them bored. Vocabulary and reading are two things closely related to each other. One cannot comprehend a reading passage well if he does not know or understand vocabulary since vocabulary is one of the basic element to build reading passage. For that we should concern with the vocabulary enrichment because it is assumed that there is close correlation ship between the sizes of one’s vocabulary with intellectual one processing in reading comprehension. We will write a custom essay sample on The importance of vocabulary skills for the enhancement of reading comprehension level among freshmen college of marketing management or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page That means to stop increasing one’s vocabulary is to stop intellectual reading comprehension growth. Reading is the mother of all study skill. It is one of the most valuable skills a person can acquire it is a complex process. Reading is not merely an ability to recognize written or printed words, but it also refers to putting meaning to what you read and drawing unified thought of what is read. The reading ability plays a central role in teaching learning success at all educational stages. Having any difficulty in this skill will result in variety of consequences. Comprehension is the peak of the reading skills and the basic for all reading processes. The skills such as acquiring the correct meaning analyzing the author’s point of view and applying what one learns from reading to real life situation are what constitute â€Å"reading comprehension†. It is considered by some researcher as the ultimate objective of the reading process since he does not comprehend what he read is considered as if he has not read. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Vocabulary skill is one of linguistic features, which influences the communicative competence. Paulston et al (1976: 55) state that the one thing that interferes most with our students communicative competence is pitiable vocabulary and we have recently come to accept the fact that our student have been right all these years when they complained about not knowing and not being taught sufficient words. The above statement reveals that vocabulary skill is very important but students are very weak in it. Furthermore, Hammer (1991: 23) assets that for many years that vocabulary was seen as supplementary to the main purpose of language teaching, namely the acquisition of grammatical knowledge about the language. Vocabulary was necessary to give student something to suspend on learning structures, but was frequently not a main focus for learning itself. Words are basic structure blocks of language; in fact survival level of communication can take quite comprehensibly when people simply link words together without any grammatical rules applied at all. So if we interested in being communicative, words are among the first order of business. Some research findings also disclose that students who have acquired more vocabulary items, they will be more likely to articulate and communicate the massage. Therefore, as a result their achievement in speaking skills is better that those who are short of vocabulary understanding or have acquired less vocabulary items. Unfortunately many teachers keep teaching and learning as a monotonous process. They speak formally in front of the class, give some explanations, read some information’s from the books, show the materials and students keep watching and listening to the teacher. Students do less participation in the class activities and do not have wide chance to call out what they have learnt. Larsen and Freeman (2000:126) stated that games are important because they have certain feature in common with real communicative events- there is a purpose to the exchange. Also, the speaker receives immediate feedback from the listener on whether or not he or she has successfully communicated. In this 3 way, they can negotiate meaning. Finally having students work in a small groups maximizes the amount of communicative practice their receive. These phenomena can be explained by the condition that there are many freshmen students and professors who still encounter problems in presenting English in their classes. The English professors should always try to make or use of different strategies and technique of teaching vocabulary. The media they usually use are already familiar to the students such as computers or power point presentations. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM This study which focused on the importance of vocabulary skills in reding comprehension aimed to answer the following questions: 1. Respondent’sProfile: a. Gender; and b. Age 2. What can vocabulary skills help the respondents in reading comprehension? 3. What difficulties do the respondents encounter vocabulary? 4. How can students improve thoroughly their own vocabulary skills? 5. What is the importance of vocabulary skills for the enhancement of reading comprehension? * You can easily comprehend a reading text. *Advance familiarity in the word. HYPOTHESIS In line with the problems formulated: 1. To know what can vocabulary skills help in reading comprehension 2. To find out the difficulties in learning vocabulary. 3. To see how can respondents improve thoroughly their own vocabulary skills. SCOPE AND DELIMITATION This study was confined in determining the level of vocabulary skills of the students. However, this study is limited to deal only with the teaching of vocabulary through reading passage. It is intended to improve the students reading comprehension skill. The respondents were the 50 freshmen college of Marketing Management enrolled in 2nd semester school year 2013-2014 at University of Caloocan City. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The study was conducted to determine the importance of vocabulary skills for the enhancement of reading comprehension level among freshmen students of marketing management in University of Caloocan City. At the end of the study, the following are the individuals that will benefit from the study: To the School Administrators They may place due emphasis in the curriculum on the importance of vocabulary skills in reading comprehension in English. To the Professors This study may gain valuable insights on the use of vocabulary practices in developing the oral communication skills of the students in target languages, while providing them enjoyment in the process. To the Students They will be able to assess the importance of these vocabulary skills in their studies. To the Parents Will be able to provide their children to have reading materials such as textbooks and author books at home. To the Future Researchers They may use this study as reference or guide in their research. DEFINITION OF TERMS The definitions are intended to avoid the ambiguity in understanding or preventing some terms used in this study. Reading- Process of meaning elaboration; thinking in relation to written symbol. Reading Comprehension- The activity or ability to understand speech from printed language thatis related one reads. Reading Passage- An act of reading something. Vocabulary- The stock of words used in language. CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES Local Literature In carrying out its analysis of the extant research in reading comprehension, the NRP (National Reading Panel) noted three predominant themes in the research on the development of reading comprehension skills. The vocabulary instructions, interaction between the reader and the text and preparation of teachers. The importance of vocabulary knowledge has long been recognized in the development of reading skills. As early as 1924, researchers noted that growth in reading power means continuous growth in word knowledge. Vocabulary is critically important in oral reading instruction. (Whipple, 1925) To determine how vocabulary can best be taught and related to the reading comprehension process, the NRP examined more than 20,000 research citations identified through electronic and manual literature searches. The studies reviewed suggest that vocabulary instruction does lead to gains in comprehension, but that methods must be appropriate to the age and ability of the reader. The use of computers in vocabulary instruction was found to be more effective than some traditional methods in a few studies. It is clearly emerging as a potentially valuable aid to classroom teachers in the area of vocabulary instruction. Vocabulary also can be learned incidentally in the context of storybook reading or in listening to others. Learning words before reading a text also is helpful. (National Reading Panel, 2011) Foreign Literature Vocabulary is well recognized as an essential component of reading proficiency with correlations between vocabulary and reading comprehension assessments ranging from . 6 to . 7 (Anderson Freebody, 1981). This is not surprising since it has been estimated that adequate reading comprehension depends on a person knowing between 90% and 95% of the words in a text (Hu Nation, 2000). Students who will become proficient readers typically have larger vocabularies than struggling readers as early as preschool, and this advantage tends to grow over time (Graves, Brunetti, Slater ,1982; Graves Slater, 1987; Hart Risley, 1995). Vocabulary development is a critical part of learning to read well and appears to be a significant aspect of the gap between competent and struggling readers. The ability to learn the meanings of words through reading is thus arguably a critical vocabulary development skill, though one more likely to help first- rather than second-language students (Laufer Hulstijn, 2001). Moreover, differences between written and spoken language indicate that inference from written texts might be important for vocabulary development. Written language is lexically richer than spoken language and may, therefore, provide a greater number of learning opportunities than are available in spoken contexts (Cunningham Stanovich, 1997) Practice at reading is likely to lead to more efficient access to word meaning. Regular reading can also provide repeated opportunities to acquire, refine, and consolidate vocabulary knowledge through inference from written texts (Beck, McKeown, McCaslin, 1983; Carroll White, 1973; Fukkink, Henk, De Glopper, 2001; Graves, 1986; Nagy, Anderson, Herman, 1987; Schatz Baldwin, 1986). In fact, programs of instruction in learning word meanings by inference from written texts meet with relative success (Fukkink de Glopper, 1998) and can benefit even poor readers (Stahl Fairbanks, 1986). The vocabulary to which students are exposed has implicit prerequisites, in that there are other words students need to know, if they are to integrate the new vocabulary into their existing stock of words. Local Studies Verbal abilities are consistently the best predictors of later reading achievement (Scarborough, 2001). The last decade has brought a growing consensus on the range of skills that serve as the foundation for reading and writing ability (Dickinson Neuman, 2006; National Reading Panel Report, 2000; Neuman Dickinson, 2001; Snow, Burns, Griffin, 1998). To become a skilled reader, students need a rich language and conceptual knowledge base, a broad and deep vocabulary, and verbal reasoning abilities to understand messages that are conveyed through print. Students also must develop code-related skills, an understanding that spoken words are composed of smaller elements of speech; the idea that letters represent these sounds, the many systematic correspondences between sounds and spellings, and a repertoire of highly familiar words that can be easily and automatically recognized. Learning, as a language based activity, is fundamentally and profoundly dependent on vocabulary knowledge. Learners must have access to the meanings of words that teachers or their surrogates use to guide them into contemplating known concepts in novel ways. The importance of vocabulary knowledge to school success, in general, and reading comprehension, in particular, is widely documented. (Becker, 1977; Anderson Nagy, 1991). Foreign Studies Proficiency in reading is fundamental to success in school and in society. However, national literacy rates are not keeping up with increasing demands for competence in literacy skills. The goal of reading instructions for students is to become self-regulating monitors of what they read. Numerous instructional factors influence whether or not students are able to comprehend text. Explicitly teaching to use comprehension strategies have shown to improve text comprehension. Based on expectations for levels of proficiency for standardized assessments that evaluate what children know and can do with grade level text, in addition to jobs that require sophisticated knowledge to complete job related tasks, it has become increasingly important to address reading comprehension on first year students. In conjunction with addressing reading comprehension, it is important to investigate factors that influence comprehension, such as vocabulary. (Britto, 2006) Theoretical Framework Vocabulary functions as a cornerstone without which any language could not exist. Speaking would be meaningless and perhaps impossible having only structure without vocabulary. The word â€Å"vocabulary† generally represents a summary of words or their combinations in a particular language. However, we should bear in mind, as Ur (2000: 60) remarked, that one item of vocabulary can consist of more than one word. The reciprocal relationship between vocabulary and comprehension. CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY RESEARCH DESIGN This study made use of descriptive analytical method. It aimed to determine the level of vocabulary skills and the enrichment of it for the enhancement of reading comprehension of the freshmen college of Marketing Management in University of Caloocan City. RESPONDENTS There were 50 freshmen college of Marketing Management officially enrolled in the 2nd semester of the school year 2013-2014 at University of Caloocan City. These students are composed of 25 male and 25 female. INSTRUMENT/TOOLS The research instrument used in the study was a 15 item questionnaire. The test is composed of two selections (YES/NO question and matching type). The first selection has 10 sets of question and the 2nd are 5 sets of question. The researcher als get information in the internet. SAMPLING TECHNIQUE In this study, we conduct a survey that is randomly given to the 25 male and 25 female respondents. The 15 item test was administered by the researchers. The researcher explained to the students the purpose and importance of the test and made the instruction very clear to them. The question is composed of two selections having 15 questions. The students were given individual set of questions and were asked to answer the test which measures their ability. STATISTICAL TREATMENT OF DATA The test took the students (time) to answer. The questionnaires were checked and the scores were tallied using frequency and percentage to determine the levels of vocabulary of the students for the enhancement of reading comprehension. To justify the point, the use of Sloven’s Formula was utilized in the formula of: + N (e) 2 Where: n= sample size N= total no. of data e= level of comprehension CHAPTER 4 Presentation of Analysis and Interpretation of Data Findings in this study are the following: Assessed the distribution of respondents according to their gender. Twenty-five (25%) of them are female and twenty-five (25%) are male. Note the following graph: Forty-one (41%) of the respondents aged 16-17. Seven (7%) were aged 18-19. The remaining two (2%) of the respondents were all under the age of 20 above. Note the following graph: Out of fifty (50) respondents, fifty (50%) said –YES that vocabulary skills can help them. Fifty (50%) also –YES that they can improved their vocabulary skills. And another fifty (50%) –YES that they uses different references to know unfamiliar words. Note the following graph: Regards if the respondent’s strategy is effective to facilitate their reading comprehension, forty-seven (47%) said –YES, while there were three (3%) said –NO. This study also appraised if the respondents have hard time know the meaning of unfamiliar words. Noted in the next graph, twenty-four (24%) said –YES, while twenty-six (26%) said –NO. At the same time, thirty-one (31%) said –YES that they got bored when reading, when nineteen (19%) of the respondents said –NO. Concerning the opinion of the respondents about the question of â€Å"Do you find reading as your leisure time? †. Thirty (30%) said –YES, while twenty (20%) said –NO. About to the conception of the respondents if they can easily comprehend reading text, forty-four (44%) said –YES and six (6%) said –NO. In the analysis of the respondents, Forty-eight (48%) said –YES that it is important to know and how to use a word, whereas two (2%) also said –NO. In the perspective of the respondents if guessing can lead to learn vocabulary, thirty-nine (39%) said –YES and the other eleven (11%) said –NO. Note the following graph: CHAPTER 5 Summary of Findings, Conclusion and Recommendation I. Summary This study is an attempt to find out the importance of vocabulary skills for the enhancement of reading comprehension among freshmen college of Marketing Management in University of Caloocan City school year 2013-2014. With the descriptive approach, the researchers designed a survey-questionnaire who answered by the fifty (50) respondents. These respondents were composed of twenty-five (25) female and twenty-five (25) male. II. Conclusion Based on the presented data, the researchers were led to the following conclusions: a. Vocabulary skills can help individual. b. Anyone can improve your vocabulary skill. c. To know unfamiliar words, use different references. d. Strategy is an effective way to facilitate reading comprehension. e. Most of the respondents did not have hard time to know unfamiliar words; but f. Some of them get bored when reading; even g. The respondents found reading as their leisure time. h. The respondents can easily comprehend a reading text. i. It is important to know and how to use a word; and j. Guessing can lead to learn vocabulary. III. Recommendation Related to the above conclusion, the researchers fully-humbly recommended you the following: To the students. To develop a strong vocabulary you should have a couple of tools: a Thesaurus and a Dictionary. A thesaurus (a book that lists synonyms and antonyms) is a helpful tool, but it is essential (very important and necessary) that you use a dictionary along with it. Read more books with rich vocabulary. These books will help you see the words in context (in their natural settings). The context can help you guess meanings of the words and can give you a good sense of how they’re used. For every college professors. Especially in the subject in English, may be the instrument they dissemination of knowledge and information related to vocabulary and reading comprehension skills. For other researchers. Continue or expand further into this study and discovery to more relevant data or information that can help augment the knowledge in the importance of vocabulary skills for the enhancement of reading comprehension.