RESULTADOS ESPERADOS

Research has shown that reading and vocabulary knowledge impact positively on academic performance. In this section I will first explain what academic performance means and then discuss the relation between vocabulary knowledge and academic performance.

2.3.1 Definition of academic performance

Academic performance refers to the general or overall performance obtained by learners across all subjects studied in the school curriculum. Academic performance is reflected in the aggregate score obtained by adding the scores from the various subjects learnt at school and dividing the total score by the number of the subjects. Discussing the concept ‘academic performance’ is important for the current study as it will assess the Form 5 learners’ performance using their general performance in the final exam. Generally in the Swazi system of education learners may obtain a below pass average, a pass average, a credit average or a distinction average. A below pass average is an average mark from 0 to 49%; a pass average is an average mark from 50% to 59%. An average mark of 60-79% is regarded as a credit average. Learners who obtain an average mark of 80 to 100% are said to have passed with distinction.

2.3.2 Reading and academic performance

Students’ reading ability is strongly linked to academic success. This is because for students to perform above average in the school tests, they must be able to read with understanding. Reading gives access to information at any time. Learners do not have to rely solely on the teacher for information. During leisure reading, skilled readers can read fast, over 300 words per minute and get more information instantly compared to relying on a lecture presented by a teacher over an hour. Stanovich (1986 cited in Lesaux et al., 2010, 197) points out that limited vocabulary knowledge is a potential source of reading comprehension difficulties, and difficulty in understanding what is read has been shown to impact negatively in school tests.

The reciprocal relationship and the interdependence between reading, vocabulary and academic performance is highlighted in Stahl (1999) who points out that a rich vocabulary comes from wide reading, and wide reading and a rich vocabulary are likely to lead to above average performance in reading tests. A student who reads a lot is more likely to know the meaning of a word like volcano and associated words like earthquake, lava, smoke plume,

pyroclastic flow and eruption because such words will be encountered within a specific

thematic context than a learner who is simply taught words in isolation in a lesson. Children who read a lot are building up knowledge of the world around them while they read – their

conceptual and declarative knowledge bases are growing with their word knowledge. Poor readers often lack adequate vocabulary to get meaning from what they read. Consequently, for such learners reading becomes difficult and tedious and that makes them unable or unwilling to read widely to encounter and learn more unfamiliar words. That contributes to what Stanovich (1986 in Pretorius & Currin 2010) refers to as Matthew effects, which is a situation that exaggerates individual differences over time, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Research indicates that good readers read more and become better readers as they learn more words and become more skilled, while poorer readers read more slowly, read less, are exposed to fewer new words and eventually become poor readers because they did not read much. As a result, students who enter high school with poor or limited vocabulary become poorer and fall behind in the course of time.

There are several studies (Gottfried 1990; Agak 2012; Pretorius 2002; Horbec 2012) that show that reading has a positive impact on academic performance. For example, Agak (2012) analyzed results from the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement Reading Literacy Test to examine the relation between reading and academic achievement among 14 year old students in Kenya. The study suggested that students who read much were more likely to do better on academic reading and other school subjects.

Another study by Horbec (2012) involving a small case study showed that reading had a positive impact on students’ academic performance. The study had two high school participants who were intrinsically motivated and felt good about reading. The participants were engaged readers and they were allowed to select books of their own choice and read for pleasure. They read a variety of books for personal purposes. They were also extrinsically motivated to gather information and to glean new understanding from texts in order to learn to achieve academic success (ibid). As skilled readers, the two participants embedded strategic reading techniques and comprehension strategies that resulted in academic success.

However, there are also some dissenting views. Contrary to the studies that suggest that reading results in academic success, a study by Kelly and Wilson (2010) showed that avid readers are not necessarily successful at school. Participants in this study were middle and high

school students. Students in the study were part of a school district that had separate reading classes for those who did not attain higher than average scores on the state reading tests. Kelly and Wilson point out that their findings showed a disconnect between the students’ reading practices and their school test scores. Contrary to the claim by Gottfried (1990) that avid readers excel academically, avid readers in the study by Kelly and Wilson (2010) did not experience consistent success in their test scores. Kelly and Wilson (2010) point out that the avid readers in their study did not excel academically because they limited themselves to reading preferred genres and read in a cocoon and did not ‘come out of hiding’ to realize their full potential. The failure of the avid readers to excel academically in their study may be due to the fact that being an avid reader does not always guarantee academic success. At times good readers may not be motivated to study academically and they may lack the zeal and persistence that is needed for studying the subjects taught in the curriculum. This highlights the importance of meaningful reading for academic achievement and the complementary role that a positive reading attitude could potentially play in learner’s success. So as stated above, reading is a necessary condition for academic success but not sufficient, in that reading alone does not guarantee success. Other factors such as persistence, diligence and motivation to succeed are also important aspects.