Vocabulary affects comprehension in several ways. When students understand more words automatically, they can devote more mental attention to interpreting the author's ideas, making inferences and evaluating information.

However, vocabulary building should not mean memorising hundreds of disconnected definitions.

Context is critical.

When your child encounters an unfamiliar word, ask:

• What do you think it means from the sentence?

• Which words around it provide clues?

• Can you replace it with another word?

• How does the meaning change if the word changes?

Word families are also useful. Understanding how related words are formed can help students decode unfamiliar vocabulary.

For example, recognising prefixes, suffixes and roots can provide clues to the meaning of new words.

Reading widely is one of the most effective long-term strategies. Encourage students to read fiction, non-fiction, biographies, articles and age-appropriate informational texts.

For exam preparation, vocabulary should also be applied through contextual comprehension questions, rather than studied in isolation.

The key relationship is:

Vocabulary → sentence understanding → paragraph understanding → inference → overall comprehension.

A student who knows more words does not automatically become a better reader, but a strong vocabulary gives them a much stronger foundation for understanding increasingly complex texts and answering higher-order comprehension questions.