Pre-teaching vocabulary strategies and reading comprehension

Abstract

The following research project aimed to determine the impact of pre-teaching vocabulary strategies in the development of reading comprehension of 36 students from the first semester of Carrera de Pedagogía de los Idiomas Nacionales y Extranjeros at "Universidad Técnica de Ambato". Regarding the methodology, this study involved a pre-experimental design with a quantitative approach. The instrument used to evaluate reading comprehension before and after applying pre-teaching vocabulary strategies was the A2 Ket reading exam from Cambridge. In addition, the treatment phase was carried out during 8 sessions, of which in 6 sessions, some texts with topics related to the subject of "Language and Culture" were used following the reading comprehension process with different activities for the pre, while and post-reading. Nevertheless, special emphasis was given to pre-teaching vocabulary using context clues, audio-visual aids, concept mapping, peer teaching, matching and Frayer's model strategies. Also, the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to analyze the collected data. Finally, the results showed a progressive improvement of the students from an initial mean of 4.67 to a final mean of 5.87 consequently, the acceptance of the alternative hypothesis was determined by applying the Wilcoxon non-parametric method. In conclusion, vocabulary pre-teaching strategies had a positive impact on reading comprehension. Additionally, it was demonstrated these strategies are innovative, attractive and encourage students to practice reading comprehension.