Gavin BROOKS    Department   Kyoto University of Foreign Studies  Department of British and American Studies, Faculty of Foreign Studies    Position   Associate Professor
Date	2019/09/20
Presentation Theme	Exploring the Vocabulary Gap: The Importance of Vocabulary for English as an Additional Language Learners’ Reading Comprehension
Conference	Shanghai Center for Research in English Language Education (SCRELE) First Biennial Conference
Promoters	Shanghai Center for Research in English Language Education (SCRELE)
Conference Type	International
Presentation Type	Speech (General)
Contribution Type	Collaborative
Country	China
Venue	Shanghai International Studies University
Holding period	2019/09/20～2019/09/22
Publisher and common publisher	Gavin Brooks,Jon Clenton
Details	This presentation introduces exploratory research as an attempt to understand the challenges EAL learners face with reading comprehension. This study investigated 31 secondary education level learners (17 EAL, 14 First Language English (FLE)) studying at an international school in Japan. Participants were assessed according to four factors known to influence reading comprehension: vocabulary knowledge (Gillet et al. 2016), word decoding ability (Droop & Verhoeven, 2003), reading fluency (Geva & Zadhe, 2006), and general language proficiency (Trakulphadetkrai et al. 2017). Our analysis showed that both vocabulary and reading fluency were statistically significant predictors of reading comprehension in our participant group.