The relationship among word knowledge, word prediction and reading comprehension

Words are the basic units of the language without them one cannot communicate effectively. Having a limited vocabulary is a barrier that prevents students from learning a foreign language. To do this study, sixty university students of English Translation were selected randomely from Bandar Abass Azad University. Participants were of two groups included thirty freshmen and thirty seniors. Two instruments (affixation test and reading comprehension test) were designed and used. Pearson correlation and Independent T-test were run to analyze the relevant data. Findings of the study revealed a significant positive relationship between the students’ word knowledge and their word prediction as well as their reading comprehension. This research has pedagogical implications for EFL students, English language teachers and curriculum developers.