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Date Posted: 20:21:09 05/01/07 Tue
Author: MARIANNA MUZZI
Subject: TASK TWO MARIANNA MUZZI NOITE

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Faculdade de Letras
Disciplina: Produção de Texto – Inglês
Aluna: Marianna Amoroso Lima Muzzi
TASK TWO
Learning a skill – Reading difficulties

Vocabulary knowledge is not an essential a tool to reading comprehension

Some people may say that a wide knowledge of English vocabulary is enough to enable someone to read (and understand) an English text. However knowing only the words of a text is not enough to allow students to understand its meaning. Vocabulary is a key factor to reading comprehension, but it alone is not enough.
To a certain extent they are right. Vocabulary has an important role in reading comprehension. As Hennings (2000) affirms words are build blocks of meaning. “Research indicates that knowledge of words, ability to access that knowledge efficiently, and ability to integrate new concepts into existing conceptual schemata are key factors in reading and listening comprehension.” Hirsch (2003) states that vocabulary shows a close relationship with reading and oral comprehension. Other researches, such as Deneman have also demonstrated the importance of vocabulary. As Deneman (1988) explains “Words are building blocks of connected text. As result, people with limited vocabularies have trouble understanding what they read and hear because they have too few building blocks with which to construct meanings.” Vocabulary acquisition is crucial to becoming a successful reader, but reading comprehension goes beyond that.
Opponents of this idea claim that reading is not just a matter of understanding the meaning of the words separately. They sustain that reading is a cognitive process. According to Cafiero reading can be understood as cognitive and social process of generating senses. Ferreira and Dias affirm that “Reading comprehension is not guided, just by the graphic marks of the text, but, above all, by what those marks have to say and by the way the reader apprehends and interprets the intention passed by the author. It is also believed that this interpretation happens at the reader/author interaction moment, generating senses that vary according to the reader and the nature of such interaction.” Therefore, as already mentioned, reading comprehension goes past lexical awareness.
They have a point in thinking like that. The text carries the sense intended by its author, but not its significance. In this case giving a great importance to vocabulary only will no help the reader with the reading comprehension. When reading a text the reader interacts with the author. Consequently, the text is never finished and the reader can change it, by giving his sense to it. He creates and recreates it al the time, since he has the freedom to generate sense. Because of this knowing the text’s word is not enough. The reader has to read beyond the lines, has to generate its sense.
Having said this, we view vocabulary only as tool to reading comprehension, because it alone will be enough. Furthermore, reading is a process, which goes beyond the text and it is up to the read generate sense to it. It is time to let go the idea that vocabulary knowledge is the most important thing to building of a successful reader.

Bibliography and References
Cafieiro, D. “Interação Autor-Leitor por Meio do Texto.”
Deneman, M. “Individual Differences in Reading Skills.” In Handbook of Reading Research, Vol. 2. Edited by R. Barr, M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, and P.D. Pearson, White Plains, NY: Longman, 1991.
Ferreira, S. P. A., Dias, M. G. B. B. “Reading, Sense Production and the Inferential Process.” Available at: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/pe/v9n3/v9n3a11.pdf . Accessed May 01, 2007.
Hennings, Dorothy Grant. “Contextually Relevant Word Study.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. 44 (November 2000): 268-279. Available at: http://www.reading.org/publications/journals/jaal/archives.html . Accessed May 01, 2007.
---. “Words are Wonderful. An Interactive Approach to Vocabulary”. Educators Publishing Service. Available at: http://www.epsbooks.com/downloads/research_papers/WAW_research.pdf . Accessed May 01, 2007.

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