The effect on comprehension of teaching selected vocabulary prior to reading an eleventh grade social studies passage

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Authors
Brewer, Robert Lee
Advisor
Shipman, Dorothy A.
Issue Date
1985
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Thesis (D. Ed.)
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Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the affect on comprehension of teaching selected key vocabulary words prior to reading an eleventh grade social studies passage. Four hypotheses were stated and the .05 level of confidence was used as the criterion for acceptance or rejection.Data for the study were collected from 143 students in six eleventh grade social studies classes. All students in the study were asked to read the same social studies passage. Students in the treatment group were given vocabulary instruction; students in the control group were given no vocabulary instruction. Upon completion of the reading assignment all students were asked to answer sixteen multiple choice questions. The questions were classified as vocabulary specific and general.The sum of the means for specific and general questions and the difference between the means of specific and general questions were calculated in order to determine if differences between the treatment group and control group could be attributed to the question type. A multivariate and a univariate analysis were applied to the data collected for the study.Hypothesis 1, which stated that there is no significant difference between the comprehension scores of the social studies class which receives vocabulary instruction and the social studies class which receives no instruction, was rejected. Vocabulary instruction improved scores for students in the treatment group. Hypothesis 2 which stated that there is no significant mean difference among the gains in comprehension scores of the social studies students classified as high, medium, or low was accepted. There was no significant difference in the gains in comprehension for students of varying vocabulary development. Hypothesis 3, which stated that there is no significant mean difference between the number of correctly answered vocabulary specific questions and the number of correctly answered general questions, was rejected. Students scored higher on the vocabulary specific questions. Hypothesis 4 which stated that there is no significant mean difference between the comprehension scores of the male and female social studies students was accepted. The vocabulary instruction did not result in a significant difference in comprehension between male and female subjects.