
Going back to my good old days, I just realised how reading comprehension was directly impacted by vocabulary. I was a teacher back then and I had a student who had excellent English reading skills, however, when she was asked to explain what she read, she used to go completely blank. The reason for this is that when you do not understand a word or how the word is connected to other words in a context, it will be difficult for you to comprehend.
What is Comprehension?
Comprehension is the ability to understand and analyse a particular text that you read. Your vocabulary means the words that you know and use while speaking or writing. Reading comprehension means understanding the passage that you have read, analysing it and then synthesising the words, sentences and ideas. You will find words everywhere. So, if we improve our knowledge of words (our vocabulary), we will also be able to improve our comprehension skills.
Improve Your Reading and Writing Skills
You are very fortunate to live in a literate world. Today the ability to read and write English is considered to be a basic skill that must be taught to all children. Historically only the privileged class were literate. It is however not the case anymore. Sadly though the general population even today relies too much on word of mouth to get all the information that they need but it is always better to communicate through writing. This will not only open your mind to new ideas and new ways of life, it will also allow you to share your ideas with others. To do this however, you need to have a good vocabulary.
The best tools that you have is your reading and writing skills. With these skills, you will be able to make the most of your life and will also be able to reach your full potential. The best thing is that there are several resources available that will help you develop your communication skills and will also help you build your vocabulary. Despite all this, children and adults even today continue to struggle with reading and writing.
Understanding the full text is not as easy as it might sound. It is rather a complicated process and therefore the instructors must teach students in the right way. The first-grade reading comprehension introduces new challenges of communication to the students but they continue developing the reading skills throughout their lives.
Improve Your Comprehension and Vocabulary
Improved vocabulary helps in improving reading comprehension skills by as much as 70%. Research shows that if words are studied in the right way and consistently, reading comprehension will improve. The biggest advantage of improving reading comprehension through vocabulary is that it is less expensive and it also does not take much time. There are many schools, however, that tend to still ignore the learning of vocabulary. It is therefore highly recommended that you pursue an online spoken English course from a reputed institute. This will help you improve your vocabulary skills.
When you are trying to learn a new word, you should understand the following:
· Relevance of the word
· Emotions associated with the particular word
· Patterns and connections of the word
Following these three steps will help you understand the meaning of the words and you will also be able to retain the meaning much better.
What is Relevance?
Relevance is being able to relate the word that you read to some other word that you already know to understand the reason as to why the word that you have come across while reading a text, has been used in a particular context.
What Is Emotion?
Emotion is having an emotional reaction to something that you liked or to something that you did not like.
What Is Connection?
Connection is the ability to link the vocabulary to the context. For example, when you come across the word, “organ”, you read the rest of the passage and try to understand if it refers to a particular body part or if it refers to a musical instrument.
To learn words, you need to go through their definitions and their associations. You should also understand their relevance and importance in multiple contexts.
To improve your vocabulary skills, you should:
· Use new words in a story to get a better understanding of the meaning of those words.
· Use the new word in several sentences.
· Draw a picture or doodle the exact meaning of the word
· Make a vocabulary notebook. Write all the new words that you have learnt, in that notebook with your story, example and a picture.
· For the next 5 to 7 days, try using the word in your daily conversations.
· Play games with cards
· Use flashcards and pictures along with markers, crayons and coloured pencils.
· Introduce new words slowly but consistently
· Play quizzes with the new vocabulary words by asking for synonyms or using the words in sentences.
How does Context help in Vocabulary Building?
Context clues are one of the best ways that help you build vocabulary. If a student is reading and if he or she is not familiar with a particular word in the sentence, he or she will try to guess the meaning of that word based on the other words that surround it. Studies have shown that if you try learning new words without referring to an actual context, it will not be possible for you to comprehend a text using those words. To fully understand the meaning of a particular word, it is essential to get exposed to the context. If you join a reputed spoken English course, you will be taught vocabulary based on the context. You will thus be able to understand the meaning of English words just like words in your mother tongue and it will also help you develop your comprehension skills.
How Building Your Vocabulary Helps in Reading Comprehension?
Your vocabulary skills have greatly impacted your reading comprehension skills. You might feel that if you have not heard about a particular word before, you will not be able to understand it and will also not be able to comprehend the meaning of the text. That is however not the case. When you are reading your brain uses two processes:
· Word Identification
· Comprehension
If you spend too much time and pay too much attention to the identification of the words, you will have less energy left in your brain to decipher the meaning of that word and the overall text. Automatic word recognition occurs when you are already familiar with the vocabulary and you can identify it the moment you come across it.
Conclusion
Several studies show that if you can recognize words while reading, that helps you comprehend the texts better. This boosts your reading. On the other hand, if you are unable to recognize even a few words while reading, that will decrease your reading speed and will distract you. You might get confused and might have to read the passage again to understand the meaning. If you have a good vocabulary, you will be able to understand the text better. If you join a good spoken English course that will benefit you to a great extent. Joining an online spoken English course will be beneficial.