ABSTRACT
Of the many benefits of having a large vocabulary, none is more valuable than the positive contribution that vocabulary size makes to reading comprehension. One of the main goals of vocabulary instruction, therefore, is to help students improve their comprehension. This choice of goals is important because of its implications for both the content and the methods of instruction. If the goal were to teach words in a way that would improve students’ performance on multiplechoice vocabulary tests, the goal could be achieved through many simple and relatively undemanding methods. However, if the goal is to teach words in a way that will improve students’ comprehension of text that contains these words, the methods become more labor-and time-intensive (McKeown, Beck, Omanson, & Pople, 1985).
