Authors : Kananelo Sylvester Moea

Volume/Issue : Volume 11 - 2026, Issue 4 - April

Google Scholar : https://tinyurl.com/ysur5ykt

DOI : https://doi.org/10.38124/ijisrt/26apr1005

Note : A published paper may take 4-5 working days from the publication date to appear in PlumX Metrics, Semantic Scholar, and ResearchGate.

Abstract : Reading comprehension is a key part of English language learning and academic success, chiefly in contexts where English is used as a second language and as a medium of instruction. Crucial to this process is vocabulary knowledge, which allows learners to access and interpret textual meaning. Yet, tenacious challenges in learners’ performance in vocabularyrelated comprehension tasks continue to increase worries in Lesotho secondary schools. This study explored the challenges teachers meet in teaching vocabulary-related questions in reading comprehension among Grade 11 learners. Directed by the Lexico-Cognitive Reading Empowerment Model (LCREM), the study conceptualises comprehension as the interface between lexical skill, cognitive dispensation, instructional mediation, sociocultural setting, and reader engagement. A qualitative research design, underpropped by an interpretivist paradigm, was employed. Data was generated through semi-structured interviews with purposively selected English teachers and analysed thematically. The findings disclose that teachers face challenges like learners’ inadequate vocabulary knowledge, difficulties with higher-order comprehension tasks, weak reading engagement, and contextual and instructional limitations. These factors together limit learners’ capacity to interpret texts, respond correctly, and exhibit linguistic flexibility. The study concludes that vocabulary should be chief to reading comprehension teaching and that operative teaching needs integrated methods that concurrently advance lexical skill and indorse reading engagement. It underwrites and foregrounds that teachers’ perspectives and offerings must be contextually grounded in understanding of vocabulary-related challenges in multilingual classrooms.

Keywords : Vocabulary Teaching; Reading Comprehension; Lexical Ability; Teacher Challenges; Reading Engagement; Lesotho Secondary Schools.

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