Words Matter: The Case of Junior High School Students’ English Achievement

Abstract

An extensive vocabulary is necessary to survive intellectually. As such, this descriptive
study investigated the acquired word knowledge of the 132 Grade 10 junior high school students
in Cebu City Division. Furthermore, the study looked into the relationship of the students’
English achievement as measured by their academic grades to the acquired size of vocabulary as
measured using the Paul Nation’s Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT). The result of the VLT showed
that the students were proficient in the 1000-word and 2,000-word levels while they were least
proficient in 5,000-word level and the University Word List Level. Using the paired t-test, the
findings indicated that there was no significant difference in the VLT mean scores between the
boys and the girls. Also, there was a substantial, significant correlation between the students’
vocabulary size and their English performance. The higher the vocabulary knowledge of a
student, the better he/she performs in an English class. Such a result implied that the teachers
might have failed to develop among the students at least the threshold vocabulary expected of
their year level. A vocabulary intervention is deemed necessary to help the students acquire the
vocabulary size needed to achieve a better English performance.