Modelos mentales y cambio conceptual

One of the oldest findings in educational research is the strong relationship between students‘ vocabulary knowledge, reading and comprehension. Hirsch (2003) averred that knowing at least 90 percent of the words in any given text enables the

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reader to get the main idea from the reading and guess correctly what many of the unfamiliar words mean; this will in turn help the students to learn new words and comprehend the text effectively. This is very true in the light of current realities because passages are written in words and the understanding of the different words that make up any passage (in and out of context) will guide the reader into effective comprehension. Vocabulary is central to text comprehension and a poor knowledge of the vocabulary of a particular language will make reading or writing of text materials in the language practically impossible. Text comprehension will in due course aid its summary either in the written or oral forms.

Summary writing has been described as a highly complex, recursive reading-writing activity (Kirkland and Saunders, 1991). Scholars (Aderibigbe, 1997;

Olatunbosun, 2000; Aniga and Ellah, 2010) have stressed the importance of good control of grammar, and sound knowledge of vocabulary in the comprehension of a text and subsequent summary of the same. Students‘ knowledge of vocabulary plays an important role in reading-writing activity that determines their success in summary writing exercises. This is because vocabulary has been identified as one of five core components of reading. These core components are phonemic awareness, phonics and word study, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000).

Schmitt (2000) observed that the mechanics of vocabulary in language learning are still something of a mystery; however, it is certain that words are not instantaneously acquired, at least not for adult second language learners. Rather, they are gradually learned over a period of time from numerous exposures primarily through the receptive knowledge normally connected to the language skills of reading and listening. As the learner develops and is able to produce a word of his or her accord when speaking or writing, the students‘ knowledge of vocabulary becomes productive or active. However, the underlying assumption is that people learn words receptively first and later achieve productive knowledge. As learners acquire or develop their vocabulary knowledge, they tend to be able to process information in the texts more easily and arrive at a better understanding faster.

In addition, Nation (1990) cited in Schmitt (2000) proposed a list of the different kinds of knowledge that a person must master in order to know a word.

These include the comprehension of the meaning(s) of the word, written form of the word, spoken form of the word, grammatical behaviour of the word, collocations of the word, register of the word, associations of the word and frequency of the word.

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According to Sedita (2005), it is impossible to specifically teach all of the new words students must learn; it is however necessary that teachers provide direct instruction in some words in order to aid text comprehension. The argument of Sedita (2005) is true; however the instruction must be systematic. Therefore, teachers could pre-teach the key vocabularies and their synonyms prior to the reading of a passage. Teachers must remember that direct instruction of specific words is only one component of effective vocabulary instruction. This was corroborated by Juel and Deffes (2004) who argued that the focus of the teacher should be on words that are important to the text, useful to know in many situations and uncommon in everyday use of language but recurrent in books.

A learner‘s knowledge of vocabulary determines all the words he or she knows or can access to effectively read, interpret and comprehend any given text or passage. Rupley, Logan and Nichols (1999) described vocabulary as the glue that holds stories, ideas and content together in order to make comprehension accessible for children. Also, Sedita (2005) argued that students‘ word knowledge is linked strongly to academic success because students who have large vocabularies can understand new ideas and concepts more quickly than students with limited vocabularies. This is particularly true because the greater the volume of words that an individual has in his or her vocabulary bank, the easier he or she finds the passage comfortable and comprehensible.

Students‘ ability to read and comprehend the passage is central to students‘

success in summary writing. Word knowledge is crucial to reading comprehension and determines how well students will be able to comprehend the texts they read in school. Sedita (2005) opined that comprehension goes beyond the mere recognition words and remembrance of their meanings. Vocabulary plays a significant role in the reading, comprehension and summary processes. It is only logical to conclude that students who lack adequate vocabulary will find it difficult to get meaning from what they read. This will also affect their attitude to reading and so, they tend to read less because they consider reading as a difficult task.

On the other hand, Stanovich (1986) submitted that students with well-developed vocabularies are able to read more, improve their reading skill, and learn more words. Students‘ knowledge of vocabulary can be effectively improved through reading where the students are able to learn new words by encountering them in text.

Students encounter new vocabularies either through their own reading or by being

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read to. Increasing the opportunities for such encounters improves students‘

vocabulary knowledge, which in turn improves their ability to read and comprehend more seemingly complex texts (Texas Reading Initiative, 2002).

Further still, students‘ vocabulary knowledge that has been built over the years through the reading of different types of text at different levels (simple and enjoyable, and challenging text types) will enhance efficient summary writing both in the aspects of the reading and writing skills. Until students have a reasonable number of vocabularies that cut across different genres in their word bank, they will not be able to comprehend a text especially one that has too many unfamiliar words. This is especially true because an individual‘s wealth of vocabulary determines his or her reading speed, text recognition, comprehension, retention of the gist and the ability to rewrite or paraphrase the passage in their own words – all these are hallmarks of effective summary writing.