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Meaning Is in the Eye of the Beholder
... Nation (2013) underlines that although learners' attention is primarily to make sense of what they read or listen to during a reading or listening activity, guessing meaning from context paves the way for accidental vocabulary learning by means of making extensive reading, taking part in conversations, and listening to radio and TV broadcasts. Emphasizing the importance of guessing meaning from context, Clarke and Nation (1980), as well as Laufer and Bensoussan (1982), state that it may not be possible to find the exact meaning of an unknown word; however, even deducing that it has a positive or negative meaning will help the realization of comprehension. ...
... However, Laufer (1988) states that lexical similarity emerges as a problem in the comprehension and production of similar words in EFL classes, in and out of context, regardless of the foreign language proficiency level of learners, underlining the risk of being mistaken when guessing in context, due to the morphological similarity of the words. Similarly, according to Laufer and Bensoussan (1982), even preconceived notions that learners think they know the meaning of but actually mistaken for other words should be eliminated to escalate the reading comprehension. Likewise, Nassaji (2003) found that among unknown words, the words whose meanings were most often inaccurately guessed were similar in spelling, if not in semantic resemblance. ...
The present study attempts to explore the effect of language proficiency on the ability to guess the grammatical roles of unknown words, to make use of contextual clues, and to guess the meaning of unknown words from context by examining EFL learners majoring in different departments at university. Guessing from Context Test (GCT) developed by Sasao and Webb (2018) was used to collect data to measure EFL learners' guessing skills as well as their ability to identify both the part of speech of an unfamiliar word and contextual clues that help them infer the meaning of unfamiliar words. The findings indicate that English-major EFL learners significantly perform better than non-English major EFL learners in each of the three categories in the GCT. More specifically, correctly guessing the meaning of unknown words lags behind correctly guessing the grammatical class of unknown words in both groups. Similarly, the rate of correct guessing of contextual clues in both groups is not as high as the grammatical class of unknown words. On the other hand, while English-major EFL learners correctly guess the meanings of the words for which they cannot correctly guess the clues, non-English major EFL learners cannot benefit from correctly guessed contextual clues to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words. Also, nouns and verbs are the word groups whose grammatical class is best predicted in both groups.
... Not all words, however, can be inferred, especially by the novice learner. Indeed, caution is recommended in situations when a sufficiently large and clear context is not available on which to base inferences (Laufer & Bensoussan, 1982). It is possible that the learner may assume their inference to be correct and therefore forgo the opportunity to look up the word in a dictionary. ...
... In my view, it is also reasonable to expect the learner to confront situations when additional information about a word's meaning must be sought, either through a dictionary or another source. Laufer and Bensoussan (1982) therefore 37 Changes in Electronic Dictionary Usage Patterns in the Age of Free Online Dictionaries: Implications for Vocabulary Acquisition argue that the important question is not whether the process of learners inferring word meaning by themselves is more beneficial, but rather which type of contextual clues or procedures are more effective in assisting the learner to infer the correct meaning. ...
Internet and smartphone technology provides the English language learner with access to free and accessible dictionary technology like never before. However, the implications of this dramatic shift have yet to be fully addressed in dictionary usage and comparative effectiveness research. The primary aim of this research is to establish an up-to-date picture of Japanese college students' usage of traditional electronic and Internet-based dictionary applications. A questionnaire was conducted and responses analyzed from 498 undergraduate college students taking compulsory EFL courses. Follow-up interviews were also conducted with five students and their responses were analyzed. The results showed that the vast majority of students were not using traditional paper dictionaries and that not only has the possession rate of electronic dictionaries fallen, but also that a substantial number of electronic dictionary owners were choosing to use other types of Internet-based dictionary applications. The pedagogical implications of these results are discussed within the framework of the " mental effort " (Hulstijn, 1992) and " involvement load " (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001) hypotheses. The potential outcomes of a " lowered consultation trigger point " (Aust, Kelley, & Roby, 1993) as a result of the ease and convenience of Internet-based dictionaries and applications are also discussed.
... For example, previous research (e.g., Shiotsu and Weir, 2007;Kim and Cho, 2015) found moderate-to-strong correlations between grammar knowledge and vocabulary. Furthermore, previous research postulated that reading context, such as morphology cues, syntax collocations, synonyms, and background knowledge influence inferences of word meanings and reading comprehension for L1 and L2 learners (Laufer and Bensoussan, 1982;Chern, 1993;Engelbart and Theuerkauf, 1999;Walters, 2004;Zhang and Koda, 2012). The close relationships among the three variables warrant further questions to be addressed: (a) in addition to the direct effects, does vocabulary have a mediating effect on the relationship between grammar knowledge and EFL reading comprehension? ...
Despite the recognized importance of grammar knowledge to the reading comprehension of EFL learners, research findings on the relationships among grammar knowledge, vocabulary, and reading comprehension are inconclusive. Attention needs to be paid to issues such as the distinct roles of the two grammar knowledge components of form and meaning, and the direct and mediating roles of vocabulary in EFL reading comprehension. This study recruited 1,149 sixth graders as research participants to evaluate these issues. The measurement tools were standardized EFL competence tests for vocabulary size, grammar forms and meanings, and reading comprehension. Structural equation modeling (SEM) regression models indicated that vocabulary played a more-significant role in reading comprehension than grammar knowledge; moreover, the effects of grammar knowledge were reduced but still significant when grammar meanings were excluded. The SEM mediating model of this study also indicated that grammar knowledge not only exerted a direct effect on reading comprehension but also indirectly influenced reading comprehension via vocabulary.
... Guessing the meaning of words from context is widely known as an effective tool to help students comprehend reading texts. Thus, they are required to focus on context clues to guess the meanings of unfamiliar or new words in written text passages (Laufer & Bensoussan, 1982). It is necessary to help students to understand the surrounding words within the same sentence can provide the useful hints about the meaning of a word or its structure. ...
This paper reports a study which examines how text-based vocabulary instruction influences English as a foreign language (EFL) freshmen's reading comprehension and explore their perceptions on this type of instruction in reading comprehension. It was a quasi-experimental study with control and experimental groups including eighty freshmen at a university. The quantitative data from reading tests for pre-test and post-test were used to examine students' reading comprehension over nine weeks. The qualitative analysis used semi-structured interviews to examine students' perceptions towards text-based vocabulary instruction in reading comprehension. The findings reveal that text-based vocabulary instruction influenced positively students' reading achievement after the experiment and that they had positive perceptions towards this type of instruction in their reading lessons.
... Thus, foreign language learners need the ability to deduce meaning from the context. Laufer and Bensoussan (1982) are scholars believing that guessing by focusing on contextual clues is a vital skill that should be taught to language learners. Likewise, Porte (1988) and Nation (2001) claimed that using context and contextual clues is one of the most effective ways to guess and learn a word, and it should be included in foreign language instruction. ...
In this action research study, the researcher aimed to find and address a problem that English as a Foreign Language
(EFL) learners in her class come across to improve their language learning process. The action research study adopted
mixed methods design using both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods. Firstly, to identify
the problem, the researcher observed the students closely, analyzed their midterm scores, and administered a diagnostic
survey to the students. The data collected through these procedures indicated that vocabulary is the most problematic
area for learners. Then, to diagnose the source of the problem, the researcher used a think-aloud protocol. In this way,
rich verbal data about students’ reasoning during a vocabulary task were collected. After identifying that the source of
the problem was a lack of strategy use, strategy training for contextual clues was implemented as an intervention for five
weeks. Finally, the effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated through a paired-samples t-test. The analysis showed
that students had significantly higher results in the vocabulary section of the second midterm compared to the first midterm. This study found that strategy training for using contextual clues is effective in improving EFL learners’ vocabulary
mastery, independent of their language level.
... Hence, students should be taught how to infer the meaning from the context. For example, Laufer and Bensoussan (1982) suggested that guessing ought to be taught by asking students to focus on the context clues. Walters (2004) commented that this strategy might enhance the guessing's effectiveness. ...
Teaching vocabulary has been mistreated due to the allegation that learners will attain the lexical items through learning without the need to focus on them explicitly. However, by the advent of new pedagogical approaches, different strategies that take account of teaching vocabulary have emerged. One of these strategies is the learner’s ability to infer the meaning of words from the context.
In this paper, an attempt is made to review the trends in the area of teaching and learning vocabulary through guessing the meaning of words from the context. A review of the literature regarding this strategy is presented. Then, variables which might affect applying the strategy are discussed. After that, recommendations on how to apply this strategy efficiently followed by an evaluation of its merits and shortcomings are given. Finally, proposals on how to employ this strategy pedagogically are suggested with a brief illustration on current course books and their support of this strategy.
Frequency is often the only variable considered when researchers or teachers develop vocabulary materials for second language (L2) learners. However, researchers have also found that many other variables affect vocabulary acquisition. In this study, we explored the relationship between L2 vocabulary acquisition and a variety of lexical characteristics using vocabulary recognition test data from L2 English learners. Conducting best subsets multiple regression analysis to explore all possible combinations of variables, we produced a best‐fitting model of vocabulary difficulty consisting of six variables (R² = .37). The fact that many variables significantly contributed to the regression model and that a large amount of variance remained yet unexplained by the frequency variable considered in this study indicates that much more than frequency alone affects the likelihood that learners will learn certain L2 words.
On the basis of a critical review of current literature on teaching learners to use contextual clues to infer word meanings, a CLIC instructional model is established in which procedures are specified for (1) enhancing L2 learners’ awareness of the pragmatic nature of lexical meanings in context, (2) selecting strategies for using contextual clues to infer meanings of unfamiliar words and (3) assessing the outcomes of CLI, together with learners’ confidence about the correctness of the meanings they have inferred using contextual clues.
The paper discusses an error pattern in vocabulary learning — confusion of'synforms’ (words of similar form). It defines, illustrates and classifies synforms into categories on the basis of their features of similarity. In categories 1–5, synforms are different from each other in an affix and identical in their root; categories 6–9 include synforms differing from each other in one phoneme, vowel or consonant. In category 10, synforms are identical in consonants, but different in some or all of their vowels. It is argued that the study of synforms may shed light not only on the phenomenon of synformic confusions as such, but also on the representation and organisation of lexical items in the learner's lexicon, on language learning processes and on vocabulary teaching requirements.
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