Differential Word Knowledge and Reading Comprehension

This study examined the effects of vocabulary pre-instruction on reading comprehension. Two vocabulary training treatments, chosen on the basis of a theoretical framework for vocabulary instruction, and a control were used with 28 average fifth-grade readers. For two of three order groups, both training treatments produced significantly higher scores on passage tests, and, for all children, both training treatments produced significantly higher scores on two sentence comprehension measures and a multiple-choice synonym test, indicating that pre-instruction had a significant effect on both comprehension and vocabulary learning. In addition, a mixed method of vocabulary instruction, or one which provided both definitional and contextual information about the taught words, produced significantly higher comprehension scores than did a definitional method.