Effects of differing proportions of unknown vocabulary of second language reading comprehension

Abstract

The study was designed to assess the effects of unknown vocabulary on second language reading comprehension. Sixty-eight Grade 10 core French second language students took multiple choice comprehension tests on three passages, each of which involved differing proportions of unknown vocabulary. In the control condition the passages had no unknown words. In the medium condition one in 10 substance words were substituted with unknown vocabulary and in the difficult condition a substitution rate of one in six substance words was used. It was found that students performed significantly better on the control condition than on the other two (p < .05). No differences were found between the medium and difficult conditions. -- Results confirm the high correlations consistently found between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension and suggest that second language students are linguistically bound to the text. The theoretical implications for current interactive models of reading are discussed and classroom and curricular strategies are suggested for overcoming or circumventing difficulties in reading comprehension caused by vocabulary difficulty.