INFLUENCE OF VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT ON READING COMPREHENSION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN SCIENCE

This study examined the influence of vocabulary development on reading comprehension of secondary school students in Basic Science in Ekiti State, Nigeria. This study adopted a quasi-experimental of pre-test, post-test control group research design on 150 JSS 2 students selected from six secondary schools using purposive sampling technique. The instruments used for this study are: vocabulary test and reading comprehension test and the participants pre-test were used to measure students’ prior knowledge. The findings of the study revealed that vocabulary knowledge, reading comprehension and students’ prior knowledge are related to students’ achievement in Basic Science. The findings also showed that the combined influence of vocabulary knowledge, reading comprehension, students’ prior knowledge and students’ achievement in Basic Science was found to be statistically significant. The study therefore suggested that teachers should make concerted efforts to embark on rigorous and explicit teaching of vocabulary as it has a potential of supporting students’ reading comprehension