Abstract  This study investigates the relationship between unknown words density and discourse comprehension in senior high school English reading. Also, the study is based on text rewriting, according to some proper data about new words density, from guiding theory at home and abroad, mainly referring to Laufer’s lexis theories, including new words density, vocabulary threshold and the best vocabulary coverage. Through tests with simple selections and short-answer questions among 41 senior school students, the study mainly examined the influence of three types of new words densities on reading comprehension. The result demonstrated that when new words density is 20%, no student gained adequate comprehension. When new words density are 10% and 5%, most students did not gain adequate comprehension. The regression analysis of the data showed that around 2% new words in a text were proper for the students to gain adequate comprehension. Finally, it explains its meaningfulness to English reading teaching in senior high school.51759

Key Words: reading comprehension     new words density     senior high school       

摘要本研究探讨了生词密度和高中英语阅读理解的关系。本研究结合国内外对英语阅读理解与生词密度、词汇阈值及词汇覆盖率之间的关系的探讨结果，选取合理数据，以文本改写为研究中的测试基础。本研究通过对一所四星级高中重点班学生的单项选择测试和问答题测试，主要检测了生词密度为20%、10%和5%时学生的阅读理解能力。研究结果表明，生词密度为20%时，没有学生能确切理解文本；生词密度为10%和5%时，多数学生不能确切理解文本。数据回归分析结果显示，生词密度为2%的英语阅读材料有助于学生获得对文本的确切理解。因此，最后阐述了该研究结论对高中阅读教学的借鉴意义。

毕业论文关键词：阅读理解     生词密度     高中     

Contents

Abstract-1

摘要-Ⅱ

Contents--ⅢChapter One Introduction--1

Chapter Two Literature Review-2

2.1 Unknown words density2

2.2 Vocabulary threshold-3

2.3 The best vocabulary coverage--4

Chapter Three Methodology--6

3.1 The research questions--6

3.2 Subjects6

3.3 Texts of reading comprehension test6

3.4 Reading comprehension test-7

3.5 Research procedure8

Chapter Four Results and discussion-9

4.1 Simple selections-9

4.2 Short-answer questions10

4.3 Subjects’ self-prediction--11

4.4 Discussion-14

Chapter Five Conclusion--15

References--17中文参考文献-19

 Chapter One Introduction

     Zimmerman (1997) once called vocabulary as the core of language. Besides, Verhallen and Schoonen (1998) also pointed out that word learning is a central task in second language learning. Actually, there is no language skill being mastered without dependence on words. Since 1980s, researches related to vocabulary has aroused public attention and achieved a lot. 

     However, there still exist some insufficiency in vocabulary study, such as researches on meta vocabulary, micro vocabulary and functions vocabulary makes in reading comprehension. Studies on relationships between words of second language and reading just begin to be fixed, while that between words of mother language and reading has been widely focused. Still, the empirical researches on relationships between unknown words density and reading comprehension are lacked. Through text reading and reading comprehension test, with theories of unknown words density, lexical threshold and vocabulary coverage (Laufer & Sim 1985; Laufer 1989, 1992, 2004, 2010), this research is going to make it clear what kind of relationship unknown words density and English reading comprehension have, . Thus, we are able to find out under which rate of unknown words density, learners can take no auxiliary reading. Meanwhile, I will exclaim meaning of this research to our nation’s English teaching. This research paper, as a whole, is pided into five parts, including introduction, literature review, methodology, result and discussion, and conclusion, focusing on two questions whether different unknown words density leads to different reading comprehension competence and whether there exists a certain threshold helping readers understand English stories and texts accurately. 生词密度对高中生英语阅读理解的影响:http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_55511.html