The effect of teaching hyponymy in comprehending texts for grade four at Rafh School in Tripoli. hisham Ahmad Khaled

النوع : Mémoire

This study describes the effectiveness of using hyponymy in comprehension and shows the existence of meaning relations among words in teaching English as a second language. It aims at investigating grade-four students’ competences of using hyponymy and whether it can increase their proficiency in decoding the meanings of unfamiliar words and in answering comprehension questions. The present study basically depends on pre- and post-tests and questionnaires which are applied on two different groups: the treatment and control groups that are pre-assigned since the design used in this study is quasi-experimental. The collected evidence in the pre-tests shows that the students have problems in finding lexical relations among words, which hinders comprehension. A strategic plan is implemented depending on Hearst approach and reveals the effectiveness of hyponymy for the treatment group in the post-test. Statistical results including mean average and standard deviation are used in analyzing the data. The results of the post-test of the treatment group show an increase in the knowledge of hyponymy by analyzing the post-tests’ questionnaires for the students. Specifically, 77% of the students became able to decode the meanings of difficult words by depending on hyponymy and 80% of them could answer comprehension questions. That obviously confirms the two hypotheses respectively. Thus, the results of the post-test of the treatment group support more firmly the hypotheses proposed that hyponymy improves decoding the meanings of unfamiliar words and increases the students’ proficiency in answering comprehension questions. Furthermore, it is important to notice that the p-value presents a tight relation between hyponymy and answering comprehension questions since it is greatly less than the standard one. Consequently, recommendations for further investigation of variables concerning teachers, learners, curriculum designers, and further research affecting comprehension abilities are suggested, and using hyponymy approach in teaching comprehension for elementary students is greatly advised.