Guessing the Meanings of Words From Context: Why and How

Çağrı Tuğrul Mart

doi:10.7575/ijalel.v.1n.6p.177

Abstract

Vocabulary is an indispensable part of a language. It is vitally needed to express meaning. Teaching English vocabulary, an important field in language teaching, is worthy of effort. In order our students to acquire reading, listening, speaking and writing skills we need to help students with developing their vocabulary knowledge. Vocabulary learning is essential to the development of language skills. Recently the importance of vocabulary learning and teaching has been considerably emphasized. One of the most effective ways of vocabulary learning is guessing the meanings of words from context. The purpose of this study is to show why guessing the meaning of unknown words from context clues is a very important learning strategy and how it is done efficiently.

Highlights

“If language structures make up the skeleton of language, it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh” (Harmer, 1991:153)
Teaching vocabulary efficiently is certainly important in language teaching
As Steven Stahl (1999) puts it, “Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word implies a definition, and implies how that word fits into the world

Summary

Introduction

“If language structures make up the skeleton of language, it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh” (Harmer, 1991:153). Teaching vocabulary efficiently is certainly important in language teaching. In comprehension of a text, vocabulary is vitally needed. Limited vocabulary knowledge prevents students from understanding a text. Vocabulary knowledge is not something that can ever be fully mastered; it is something that expands and deepens over the course of a lifetime. Instruction in vocabulary involves far more than looking up words in a dictionary and using the words in a sentence”. The greatest tools ,as Pikulski and Templeton (2004) point out, we can give students for succeeding, in their education but more generally in life, is a large, rich vocabulary and the skills for using those words. Our ability to function in today’s complex social and economic worlds is mightily affected by our language skills and word knowledge. As Biemiller puts it: If we are serious about “increasing standards” and bringing a greater proportion of schoolchildren to high levels of academic accomplishment, we cannot continue to leave vocabulary development to parents, chance, and highly motivated reading (Biemiller, 2001: 28)

Why guessing the meanings of words from context is a useful approach?

How guessing the meanings of words from context is done effectively?

Findings

Conclusion