The Relationship Between Vocabulary and Scholastic Achievement of a Group of Prairie View State College Students

Author

William Clifford Johnston, Prairie View University

Date of Award

8-1945

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Degree Discipline

Education

Abstract

The general problem upon which this study is based is to find whether there is any significant relationship between the vocabulary status of students enrolled at Prairie View State College during the second semester of the 1944-45 academic year, and their scholastic achievement as represented by the grade marks they received for the semester's work. The foregoing statement implies the measurement of the vocabularies of the students included in this study and the reduction of their grade marks to some unit of measure capable of expressing varying degrees of scholastic achievement. Another implication is that the results obtained from measuring the vocabularies of these students are to be compared with the measures used to express quantitatively their scholastic achievement. Perhaps the most widely used measure of total achievement in academic work is the grade point average, and this is the measure used in this study.

The solution of this problem is based upon answering the following questions concerning the students studied: 1. In this group were the students having the larger vocabularies more likely to earn higher grade point averages than the students having the smaller vocabularies? 2. How many students who have vocabulary scores falling between given percentiles of the scores for the group, also have their grade point averages falling between corresponding percentiles of the grade point averages for the group? 3. Of the students whose vocabulary scores are included in the lower 50 per cent of the scores tor the group, how many also have their grade point averages falling in the lower 50 per cent of the grade point averages tor the group? 4. How students whose vocabulary scores fall above the fiftieth percentile, also have grade point averages above the fiftieth percentile? 5. What is the coefficient of correlation between the vocabulary scores and the grade point averages tor this group of students?

This problem is clearly linked with the whole problem of education. If students possessing the larger vocabularies are more likely to make better grades or to do more satisfactory college work than stu­dents with small or limited vocabularies, it is only reasonable to assume that a valuable means tor improving the scholastic achievement of students will be available in providing for the growth of their vocabu­laries.

Committee Chair/Advisor

J. M. Drew

Publisher

Prairie View University

Rights

Date of Digitization

11-4-2021

Contributing Institution

John B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

Recommended Citation

Johnston, W. C. (1945). The Relationship Between Vocabulary and Scholastic Achievement of a Group of Prairie View State College Students. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/pvamu-theses/673