Description:
“Classification” and “Composition” are two essential lexicon relations which are typically embedded within statements in science textbooks. The purpose of this study is to explore student comprehension of the Classifications and Composition relations in science textbooks. Three hundred and sixty-eight junior and senior high students participated in this study. An excerpt text was chosen from a passage on “matter and atoms” in junior high science textbooks as the treatment text and the “Science Lexicon Relation Questionnaire” was developed to detect students’ comprehension. The results revealed students could recognize the discrimination between Classification and Composition of science lexicons. Meanwhile, senior high student understanding was better than that of junior high student. However, there were some students who did not clearly comprehend either or confused the two lexicon relation, especially for the blend-composition relations. Moreover, they could explain the blend-composition from their daily common-sense. To conclude, this study might be of importance in exploring lexicon relations in science textbooks, as well as in providing scientific teachers with a better understanding of student comprehension of these lexicon relations in their science learning.