| Vocabulary is one of the important components in learning a foreign language. The importance of learning a vocabulary is stressed by Horwitz and Taylor as cited in Schmitt (1997). In their study, they found that a number of ESL students completing their questionnaire either agreed and strongly agreed that the most important part of learning a foreign language is vocabulary. However, it should not be assumed that if a second language learner has sufficient vocabulary then all else is easy. Vocabulary knowledge is only one component of language skills such as reading and speaking. It should also be assumed that vocabulary knowledge is not always prerequisites to the performance of language skills. According to Nation (2001), vocabulary knowledge enables language use, language use enables the increase of vocabulary knowledge, and knowledge of the world enables the increase vocabulary knowledge and language use and so on. It means that although vocabulary knowledge is not directly related to reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge can assist reading comprehension and reading can affect the growth of the vocabulary. In brief, the more vocabulary knowledge EFL learners have the better they are in reading comprehension. |