Word Wall and Word Bank: Enhanced Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension Skills of Grade 4 Pupils in General Luna Elementary School

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Vocabulary comprehension is a crucial component in acquiring reading comprehension skills. Successful vocabulary development ensures that pupils will develop metacognitive skills that assist in comprehending advanced text requirements when they leave the learning to read phase and are expected to read to learn. One reason teachers are concerned about teaching vocabulary is to facilitate the comprehension of a text that pupils will be assigned to read. It is this context that the researcher uses selection in the local setting wherein the pupils can easily relate to each story. Terms found in each story that is not understood by the pupils will be drawn as a vocabulary word that will be included in the word bank.

METHODS

This action research followed the descriptive-evaluative form of research. It describes the vocabulary and reading comprehension skills of the grade 4 pupils before and after the intervention of the word wall and word bank intervention. The existing knowledge of the pupils on vocabulary and reading comprehension done was evaluated. The same evaluation was done after the use of the word wall and word bank intervention. Any difference in the pre-test and post-test will be described.

RESULTS

The performance of the Grade IV pupils in the pre-test vocabulary that were taken from the reading selections reveals that the pupils got very low scores with an average Mean Percent Score (MPS) of 44.00 percent. When these words were placed in the "word wall " and pupils were asked to research on these words and entered into their " word bank" for mastery, they were able to improve tremendously in their vocabulary as shown in the post-test. From MPS 44.00 percent in the pre-test, they improved in the post-test with an MPS of 83.20 percent. Few pupils who got a perfect score in the post-test.

DISCUSSIONS

The results demonstrate in the research that " word wall and word bank" tremendously improved the vocabulary skills and reading comprehension of the pupils. It could be noted that the use of the word wall and word bank is very effective in improving the word vocabulary of the Grade IV pupils of General Luna Elementary School.