Vocabulary Threshold for Reading Comprehension during the Transition to Secondary School among Tanzanian Public School Students

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the vocabulary size of the Form One students in Tanzanian Public secondary schools to determine whether their vocabulary size was sufficient for them to comprehend their textbooks. Scholarly, the link between vocabulary size and reading comprehension is well-reported in second language learning studies. Whereas, different studies report that a second/foreign language learner needs to understand between 95% and 98% of the running words of a text to have adequate comprehension. This suggests for the vocabulary size between 4,000 and 9,000 words to enable an ESL/EFL learner to understand 95% - 98% respectively of the running words for authentic texts, including academic ones. The study adopts a quantitative research approach and a case study design. Data were collected through the Vocabulary Size Test (VST) by Nation and Beglar (2007) and analyzed by SPSS version 23. The
study was guided by the threshold hypothesis of Cummins (1976) to establish the factual evidence of the study. Consequently, the examined vocabulary size of the Tanzanian Public Secondary Schools students reveals an inadequacy of Vocabulary Size to support text comprehension. Form One students in Tanzanian Public Secondary schools were found with 3600 vocabulary family which could not enable the learners to read text books neither at minimal nor at optimal level of comprehension. Lastly, the paper recommends for the curriculum design based on learners‟ vocabulary family levels and academic language to be planned coherently across language supportive practices.