Explicit Contextual and Morphemic Analysis Instruction, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension Among Grade Four Students

Abstract

The schema theory, cognitive load theory, interactive model of reading, and lexical quality hypothesis recognizes the primacy of vocabulary in reading comprehension. Substantial empirical research affirms this relationship. Despite these, vocabulary teaching in the classroom remains sparse. The present study sought to find out if explicit instruction in contextual and morphemic analysis would improve vocabulary and reading comprehension. It also examined which aspects of vocabulary and reading comprehension would improve the most. This study used a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest within-subjects design. Participants were 38 students from two comparable Grade 4 classes. Explicit instruction in contextual and morphemic analysis was given through twelve expert-validated lesson plans that were implemented across 18 weeks. The tools used were the expert-validated and field-tested Researcher-Constructed Vocabulary Test and Researcher-Constructed Reading Comprehension Test. Dependent-samples t-test results revealed a significant increase in the students’ vocabulary and reading comprehension scores. These results are generally consistent with most theoretical and empirical literature. In terms of vocabulary, contextual analysis-wise, the biggest gain was in example clues, while morphemic analysis-wise, the largest increase was in the over/under word part family. In terms of reading comprehension, the biggest increase was in the integrative level. Overall, the findings suggest that explicit instruction in contextual and morphemic analysis is an effective method of teaching vocabulary strategies which impacts not only vocabulary but also reading comprehension. This has implications for instruction, curriculum planning, pre-service and in-service teacher training, and research.