Abstract

Recent studies and theories suggest that vocabulary depth may be more important in determining an individual's reading comprehension, than vocabulary breadth. The relationship between discourse comprehension and breadth and depth of vocabulary has not been studied in preschoolers. This report describes results of two studies that examine this relationship in preschool samples of two different ages. Results show that, in both age groups, vocabulary depth accounts for a significant portion of the variance in discourse comprehension, even after controlling for the effect of vocabulary breadth. This highlights the relevance of enriching the instruction of new words at this early age if one hopes to influence language comprehension and future reading comprehension.