Abstract

This research study focused on the role of vocabulary in reading comprehension on beginner EFL Spanish-speaking learners, by means of a hypermedia gloss. A quasi-experiment took place at two secondary schools, where 60 tenth graders participated in an online reading module. The participants read 6 expository texts under two conditions: using lexical hyperlinks for words that hindered reading and no hyperlinks, respectively. To evaluate the effectiveness of this strategy, a reading and vocabulary test were applied before and after the treatment. Also, a tracker was used to record the number of times each participant consulted a word. The results showed improvement in both reading and vocabulary knowledge for students who used the hyperlinks. This strategy sheds more light on the importance of vocabulary learning mediated by technology for beginner learners when reading expository texts. Additionally, it was possible to establish correlations between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension.