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PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA |
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Context
Clues--A Key to Vocabulary Development
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Enlarging the learner's vocabulary has been one
of the objectives of English reading classes. But there are different ways to achieve this
objective. In China the usual practice is that whenever a new word or phrase comes up in a
passage, the learners either rely on their teacher for the definition of the word or they
look it up in the dictionary. The drawbacks of this approach are obvious. Too much
dictionary work tends to distract the reader. It increases the learner's dependency on
both the teacher and the dictionary, and it develops bad reading habits.
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After several years of teaching, I have found
that using context clues to infer or deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words is an
effective way to develop the students vocabulary and increase their reading comprehension.
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This strategy is based on the following three
assumptions:
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1. Making use of what we know in order to infer
the unknown is a common practice in our daily lives. For instance, if we look out of a
window and observe that someone is holding an open umbrella, we will infer that it is
raining. Drawing inferences from what we observe is fundamental to thinking and the same
principle can certainly be used in the reading process.
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2. The subject matter of a passage is
interrelated and the text is often redundantly structured. In order to help readers,
writers sometimes give them information more than once in different ways. Some of the
words or phrases are mutually defining, so readers have more than one chance to retrieve
information that is important for understanding the passage.
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3. By nature, reading is a process of hypothesis
formation and verification. It is a communicative act between a faceless writer and a
large number of nameless readers; consequently the understanding the readers achieve is
unlikely to be 100 percent accurate. Readers have to be content with approximate meaning;
in other words, they have to be satisfied with a level of understanding that is sufficient
to make sense of the general context.
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There are a variety of context clues that can be
used to infer the meaning of a word.
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1. Definition. Often the writer
defines the meaning of the word right in the sentence or gives enough explanation for the
meaning to be clear, e.g., Later Congress voted to augment or increase the job
training program. Assuming that the word augment may be unfamiliar to some of the
readers, the writer explains the meaning by giving a familiar word.
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2. Example. Many times an author
helps the reader get the meaning of a word by providing examples that illustrate the use
of the word, e.g., The lantern illuminated the cave so well that we were able to see
the crystal formations on the rocks.
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3. Comparison and Contrast.
Comparison and contrast usually show the similarities and differences between persons,
ideas, and things, e.g., The Asian gibbon, like other apes , is specially adapted
for life in trees. The phrase like other apes indicates that the Asian gibbon is a
type of ape. In the example, The major points of your plan are clear to me, but the
details are still hazy , but introduces a clause that contrasts in meaning with the
previous one and signals the fact that hazy is the opposite of clear.
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4. Summary. A summary clue sums up
a situation or an idea with a word or a phrase, e.g., Mr. Alonso contributes money to the
Red Cross, the Boys Club, and the Cancer Fund; he also volunteers many hours in the
emergency ward of the hospital. He is indeed altruistic. From this account of Mr.
Alonso's deeds, the reader may well infer that altruistic means unselfish.
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5. Synonyms. Very often the reader
can find in the same passage a familiar word that relates to a subject in a manner similar
to the way that the unfamiliar term does, e.g., On a March night a girl was attacked by a maniac
as she came home from work. The madman took half an hour to murder her, but no one
called the police. From the description of the events in the first and second sentences we
know that the words maniac and madman refer to the same person and are
probably synonymous.
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6. Antonyms. Words with opposite
meanings may be found in the same context, e.g., To be white and not black, affluent
and not poor, is enough to provide status in certain social groups. We note that white
and black are opposites, so when we see the next pair of words in a parallel
construction, we can assume that affluent is the opposite of poor , and must
therefore mean rich.
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This learning strategy can t be acquired without
the guidance of the language teacher. The reading class is a good place for teachers to
introduce the skill, and students can learn it gradually. In the process, three steps can
be taken.
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1. Introduce signal words or indicators to help
the students locate context clues. The teacher's task is to draw the students attention to
these signals when they occur, e.g., X-ray therapy, that is, treatment by use of X-ray,
often stops the growth of a tumor. Knowing that therapy is a new word for most of
the students, I will tell them that the phrase that is commonly signals a
clarification of a previously used word.
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The following sentence contains another example
of an indicator frequently seen in reading classes. Unlike the United States, where many
different nationalities make up the population, Japan's population is quite homogeneous.
In this sentence homogeneous is likely to be an unfamiliar word. Fortunately, we
have a signal word: unlike . I explain to the students that the word unlike
is often used to introduce a contrast between two or more things. By introducing the
function of this signal word in the sentence, the teacher helps them work out the meaning
of an unfamiliar word. Gradually the students become sensitive to these signals for
context clues, and they become skillful in identifying and using them to successfully
infer the word's meaning.
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2. Use leading questions to direct the students
into a step-by-step search for and use of context clues. It is fair to say that in a great
deal of text such signals for locating the context clues will be lacking. Without them,
inferring is hard work, but it is not impossible. There are still some context clues that
may be profitably utilized. What a language teacher should do is to make the students more
observant and put them on the right track.
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In the following example there is no obvious
signal word or phrase like that is to say or in other words . But with the
teacher's help, meaningful inference can still be made by the students:
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To test is to sample and predict. We test a
frail-looking chair by touching it before we sit down, or we prod the ice of a
newly frozen pond with a stick before committing ourselves fully. With an
exploratory poke , we hope to measure the strength of the chair or the ice well
enough to predict later performance.
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More or less sure that the underlined words or
phrases are new to the students, I use the following questions to help them make educated
guesses for the meaning of the new words.
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- Does the word frail mean strong or weak? How do you know?
- Do the two actions to touch and to prod have anything in common?
- Does the phrase to measure the strength of the chair or the ice shed some light on the
meanings of prod and poke ?
- According to common sense, what is likely to take place on a newly frozen pond after the
ice has been prodded by a stick?
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Questions like these direct the students
attention to the surrounding words, phrases, or sentences that help them guess an unknown
word.
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3. Ask students to infer meaning independently
and then explain how they made the inference. In preparation for these exercises, the
teacher selects some short paragraphs from other sources the students have not yet seen.
Each paragraph should contain one or more context clues. The purpose of these exercises is
to reinforce the vocabulary development strategies learned in the textbook.
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The teacher provides the students with a handout
of a selected paragraph. The words presumed to be unknown to the students are underlined.
The students are required to work out the meaning of the unknown words and to explain how
they did the task. In this exercise, the emphasis is on the process of inferring. When
listening to a student's explanation, the teacher asks what strategy the student has
applied and what information he has used in reaching his conclusion. Results may differ
from student to student. Some of them may make wrong guesses, but as long as the students
have used correct strategies and logical thinking, they should be encouraged by the
teacher. Sooner or later they will be on the right path.
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The advantages of this approach
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Apart from enlarging a reader's vocabulary, this
approach has some other advantages.
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- It makes the reader aware of one important feature of vocabulary, namely, that context
determines the meaning of words.
- It helps readers develop a holistic approach toward reading a text. While they are
looking for context clues, they learn to direct their attention to language units larger
than the sentence because the context of a new word may be drawn from a group of
sentences, a paragraph, or even the entire text.
- This approach encourages readers to develop the quality of taking risks, and makes them
more confident and independent in their approach to reading.
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Class application of this approach has proved it
a success. The students find it stimulating and rewarding, and are eager to try it
whenever an unknown word appears in their reading material. Once they learn a new word by
this approach, they learn it in its complete context, not as a mere isolated word.
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Yang
Fengning is an associate professor in the Foreign Language Department of Tianjin
University. He is chief of the teaching and research section for non-English majors
(science and engineering students). |
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