VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE, CONTEXT AND READING COMPREHENSION IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Abstract

Vocabulary knowledge can be as important as the skill of using context for interpreting meaning and this process and the teaching tools for vocabulary teaching also can lead students to enhance such skills. These contextual clues are necessary to be applied through some specific activities aimed at discovering the meaning of unknown words. Nevertheless, it is assumed that not only lexical knowledge but also a great variety of reading strategies and activities are crucial in this process making students to reflect about their own knowledge. Students can be taught to be more active as they read in the sense of applying a variety of comprehension strategies like the ones that skilled readers report as they read. Thus comprehension can, in fact, be improved construing the meaning as a whole. Some debates have been focused on whole language and researchers continually try to improve learning and teaching to meet students’ needs.  There is a lack of consistency of research findings in the area of second language reading processes, in contrast with the fast growth and the huge diversity of the English language learning population.