ABSTRACT
The link between vocabulary and comprehension is well documented. Creating meaning from a text is difficult if you lack the necessary vocabulary knowledge. In fact, vocabulary difficulty strongly influences the readability of text (Klare, 1984). Just try picking up a text on an unfamiliar subject and you can empathize with students as they struggle to read unknown words and make meaning with them. As a skilled reader, you could probably accomplish this task by using word strategies and prior knowledge. But our students do not have the strategy toolbox of a skilled reader, and if you have observed a student wrestle with a text, you have witnessed this firsthand. Novice readers skip unknown words, replace them with incorrect words, or spend so much time decoding that the context is completely lost.
