**Vocabulary Impact on Moloko's Reading Challenges**

Certainly! Here’s a detailed answer to the question: **What role does vocabulary knowledge play in Moloko’s comprehension challenges? (5 marks)** 1. **Understanding of Story Content:** Vocabulary knowledge is essential for understanding the meaning of the words and phrases used in a text. If Moloko is unfamiliar with key words, he may read them accurately but fail to grasp their meaning, which limits his overall comprehension. 2. **Making Sense of Sentences:** Knowing vocabulary allows a learner to piece together sentences and understand how ideas connect. If Moloko does not understand the vocabulary, individual sentences or paragraphs may not make sense, causing him to miss the main ideas or message of the story. 3. **Following Story Events and Details:** Vocabulary knowledge helps learners identify important story details, such as characters, settings, or events. Without a good grasp of the words used to describe these elements, Moloko may not be able to answer questions about them or may give irrelevant answers. 4. **Engagement in Discussions:** Limited vocabulary reduces a learner’s confidence and willingness to participate in group discussions. Moloko’s lack of participation might be due to his discomfort with using words he does not fully understand or cannot express. 5. **Retelling and Explaining:** When asked to retell or explain a story, strong vocabulary is needed to accurately recount information and provide meaningful responses. Since Moloko repeats parts of the text without understanding, this suggests he is decoding (reading words) but not truly comprehending due to gaps in his vocabulary knowledge. **Summary:** Moloko’s difficulties in answering comprehension questions and engaging in discussions are likely linked to limited vocabulary knowledge, which hinders his ability to make sense of the text and express his understanding effectively.