Guessing word meanings from context - A useful technique in doing the GCSE examination for 12th form students at Le Loi high school

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. The rationale of the study
Vocabulary is an essential component of language, which plays a decisive role in communication. Wilkins, a famous British applied linguist, emphasized this with his saying "without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed" [1]. Obviously, words do not occur in isolation but within the context of sentence or a large discourse. Also, a word used in different contexts may have different meanings; thus, simply learning the definitions of a word without examples of where and when the word occurs will not help learners to fully understand its meaning. Additionally, vocabulary plays a prominent role in the GCSE examination, which is one of the biggest problems to the students. 
In fact, students in general and Le Loi High School students in particular often have a habit of looking up word meanings in dictionaries without understanding how to use them. Therefore, Le Loi High School students find it difficult to globally understand spoken or written discourse, most probably because they lack the ability to guess word meanings from context. Many students tend to ignore unknown words, which is thought completely problematic to vocabulary learning. Therefore, this problem is well worth taking into consideration, especially when taking the GCSE exam full of unknown new words.
 	Although it is evident that the use of contextual clues can be effective and necessary in learning and teaching English vocabulary as well as taking the exam and provide a means by which students can quickly increase their existing vocabulary base, it has not attracted much attention in terms of classroom instruction due to its time- consuming. All these have motivated me to carry out an action research "Guessing word meanings from context- a useful technique in doing the GCSE examination for 12th form students at Le Loi high school "
2. Aims and Objectives of the study
The study is aimed at training the technique of guessing word meanings to so that students can understand word meanings as well as their form and then use them correctly. On this basis, their abilities to apply this useful technique in doing the GCSE examination will be considerably improved. 
3. Objects of the study.
	Focusing on improving the students’ abilities in guessing word meanings from context when learning English, the study pays attention to the students preparing for the exam in general, and 12th grade students in particular.
4. Methods of the study
With reference to its characteristics, this study can be categorized as an action research. The following instruments are applied to collect data for this study:
The pre-test and post-test were used to measure whether students could improve their application of the guessing technique in improving vocabulary. 
Diary was also used to measure the development of the students during the time the study was being carried out. 
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
I. Theoretical background of guessing technique in learning and teaching English vocabulary
I. 1. Guessing or inferring strategy
Guessing word meanings from context most commonly refers to inferring the meanings of a word from surrounding words in a written text. It is an active and deliberate process to acquire a meaning for a word in a text. 
Grellet (1981) defined guessing as “inferring means making use of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the meaning of unknown elements” [2]. Gairns and Redman (1986) use the term “contextual guesswork” for the strategy of making use of context in which the word appears to derive an idea of its meaning or in some cases from the word itself [3]. The guessing strategy is quite sophisticated but it plays a very important part in vocabulary development. Thus, it has been widely promoted as it has been seen to fit in more comfortably with the communicative approach than any other.
I.2. Guessing word meanings from context as a technique of vocabulary teaching and learning
Guessing word meanings from context is one of many available vocabulary learning techniques. This technique is regarded as “the most important of all sources of vocabulary learning”. Teaching meanings of single words out of context does not yield good learning outcomes because of the polysemous nature of words. Nagy (1997:76) argues that although second-language learners are less effective than native speakers at using context, they may have a greater need to use context. The reason is that they encounter unfamiliar words quite more often than first language readers and are more expected to encounter unfamiliar meanings of words. Obviously, second language learners are able and have more opportunities to learn words from context [4]. 
Using context clues to understand the meaning of unfamiliar words helps the reader save time since the reader does not have to look the word up in the dictionary and that also gives the reader a good sense of how a word is actually used. As Smith (1971) argued, instead of looking words up in a dictionary, the best way to identify an unfamiliar word in a text is to draw inferences from the rest of the text. To understand the key words by using guessing meanings from context is a skill that leads the learners to read effectively and efficiently. Guessing meaning of unfamiliar words in context is the most practical method to comprehend both written and oral communication [5]. 
Given the important role of guessing word meanings from context technique, it is recommended that the teacher should assist students in learning to recognize clues to guessing word meaning from context. This vocabulary learning skill is effective for learning low-frequency vocabulary.
I.3. Types of context clues used in guessing word meanings
Clues help to infer meanings of new words from context. It is impossible to infer the meanings of new words if the context does not offer enough clues. Both teachers and students need to be aware of this. Nation (1983) suggests some types of clues as follows:
I.3.1. Structural clues
Structural clues help to know the kind of meaning of the new words. They are used to determine the type of grammatical category of new words. They include: morphology, antonyms, synonyms, hyponyms, definitions, restatement, reference words, alternatives and punctuation.
Morphology: The students can derive word meanings by examining internal, morphological features, like prefixes, suffixes, and root words.
Reference words: Identifying the referents of pronouns may provide a clue to the meaning of an unfamiliar word.
Synonyms and antonyms: Often the reader can find the meaning of new items in the same sentence.
Hyponyms: Very often the reader can see that the relationship between an unfamiliar word and a familiar word is that of a general concept accompanied by a specific example (a hyponym).
Definitions: Sometimes the writer defines the meaning of the word right in the text as “are/is known as”, “are /is described as”, “are/ is defined as”.
Alternatives: The writer may give an alternative of an unfamiliar word to make the meaning known.
Restatement: Often the writer gives enough explanation for the meaning to be clear such as: “in other words”, “that is” and “that is to say”.
Punctuation: Readers can also use clues of punctuation and type style to infer meaning, such as quotation marks (showing the word has a special meaning), dashes (showing apposition), parentheses or brackets (enclosing a definition), and italics (showing the word will be defined).
I.3.2. Inference clues
Those types of clues need a higher level of analytical skill and practice than structural clues. The readers need to use rationale or reasoning skills in order to figure out the meanings of new words. Inference clues include comparison and contrast, summary, cause and result, cohesion to understand the word meanings.
Summary: A summary clue sums up a situation or an idea with a word or a phrase.
Comparison and contrast: Writers can show similarity or difference. Key words “but”, “instead of”, “even though”, “in contrast to”, “yet”, and “in spite of”, “like”, “in the same way” are used by the author.
Cohesion: While reading a text, cohesion is maintained through a rich mesh of contextual clues. The meaning of unknown words can be shown by other words in the same sentence or in adjacent sentences because they regularly co-occur with the unfamiliar words. [6] 
In conclusion, to make effective guesses, learners need to be trained to look for clues in context, provided that those clues are sufficient to make inferences possible and productive.
I.4. Approach to teaching of guessing technique
Although guessing from context is a complex and often difficult technique to carry out successfully, it may still contribute to vocabulary learning. There are different approaches to teaching the technique of guessing from context, two of which are inductive and deductive approach. According to Nation and Coady (1988), teachers can train students the guessing technique with a five-step inductive procedure:
Determine the part of speech of unknown word;
Look at the immediate context and simplify it if necessary;
Look at the wider context. This entails examining the clause with unknown word and its relationship to the surrounding clauses and sentences;
Guess the meaning of unknown word;
Check that the guess is correct. [8]
As can be seen in the mentioned approache, teacher's explanation and modeling of the technique is essential at the beginning stage, followed by student practice.
II. The reality of training the guessing technique as well as applying the technique dealing with the GCSE examination 
In fact, students in general and Le Loi High School students in particular often have a habit of looking up word meanings in dictionaries without understanding how to use them. Too much dictionary work can kill all interests in reading and even interfere with comprehension, because readers become more concerned with individual words and less aware of the context which gives them meaning. Therefore, Le Loi High School students find it difficult to globally understand spoken or written discourse, most probably because they lack the ability to guess word meanings from context. So they tend to forget the meanings of new words quickly and find it difficult handling those words in the real situation. Many students tend to ignore unknown words, which is thought completely problematic to vocabulary learning. Using the contexts in which words appear, that is, a sentence in which the words to be learned appears will help students derive the meaning of these unknown words. Therefore, this problem is well worth taking into consideration.
Additionally, various types of exercises included in the GCSE examination involves in the guessing technique such as: reading comprehension, synonyms and antonyms or vocabulary and structure parts. Students who are not good at guessing technique often have the habit of ignoring the new words, which results in ignoring the exercises and choose the options randomly without any consideration. That bad habit doesn’t bring them the good result in the exam, which includes a large number of new words.
III. Training the guessing technique from context for 12th grade students preparing for the GCSE examination.
During the time the study was carried out, I often gave some related activities for practicing guessing technique in learninng vocabulary that students had just learnt. The new words were explained clearly in some ways so that students could guess the clues, understand the word meanings and they were able to use them effectively. I also gave the procedure of training lessons in which students had chances practicing with the guessing technique in learning vocabulary.
III.1. Procedure of training the guessing technique in classroom
	As I refered in the theoritical background, I constructed students to follow the steps by Nation and Coady (1988) because it is not too difficult for students to understand and follow. 
TRAINING LESSON 1
Part 1: Theory
`	Guide students how to guess the meanings of unknown words from context. 
+ Step 1: Look at the unknown word and find out what part of speech it is. Is it a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb?
Example 1: She walks briskly to class so that she wouldn’t be late.
We can guess that “briskly” is an adverb because it is after the action verb “walk”.
+ Step 2: Look at the clause or sentence containing the unknown word. If the unknown word is a noun, what does this noun do, or what is done to it? And what adjectives describe it? What verb is it near? If it is a verb, what nouns does it go with? Is it modified by an adverb? If it is an adjective, what noun does it go with? If it is an adverb, what verb is it modifying?
Example 2: We offered our condolence to the unhappy woman when her husband died.
The situation is her husband died and the key word is unhappy woman. The question is what we should offer when someone feels unhappy because her husband died. Naturally we will offer her sympathy. So we can guess that condolence means sympathy.
+ Step 3: Look at the relationship between the clause or sentence containing the unknown word and other sentences or paragraphs. Sometimes this relationship will be signaled by conjunctions like “but, because, if, when”, or by adverbs like “however, as a result”. The possible types of relationship include cause and effect, contrast, time, exemplification, explanation, condition, arrangement, classification, comparison and summary.
Example 3: My library at home is quite sparse; the central library, however, has a lot of books.
In the sentence, there is a contrast unit. We can see that the author is contrasting two ideas “sparse” and “has a lot of books”. Therefore, “sparse” has the opposite meaning to “has a lot of books”, “few books” can be acceptable.
+ Step 4: Use the knowledge you have gained from steps 1 to 3 to guess the meanings of the word and check if your guess is correct.
 (a) See that the part of speech of your guess is the same as the part of speech of the unknown word. If it is not the same, then something is wrong with your guess.
(b) Break the unknown word into its prefix, root, and suffix, if possible. If the meanings of the prefix and root correspond to your guess, it is good. If not, look at your guess again, but do not change anything if you feel reasonably certain about your guess.
(c) Replace the unknown word with your guess. If the sentence makes sense, your guess is probably correct.
Part 2: Practice
Identify the part of speech of the underlined words and guess the meanings of those words
During the winter, having to take a cold shower makes me shiver all over.
He’s such a mournful person that just being around him makes me sad, too.
Many ships have vanished during hurricanes. All crews have disappeared and have never been found.
Students! Students! Please stop chattering and listen to me. Class has begun so you cannot enjoy talking.
Every atlas has its own legend. 
The street is crowded with conveyances of all descriptions, such as buses, bicycles, cars and automobiles.
Iran is trying to restore many of its ancient buildings. For example, Persepolis- Iran’s oldest building-is being partially rebuilt by a group of Italian experts.
The girl always prevaricated when she was caught in the act of cheating and didn’t want the truth to be known.
Although the rigors of the job were great -- for example, the long hours, the lifting of heavy loads, the very hot and then very cold temperatures outdoors --George didn’t complain because the pay was good.
Be careful with this knife -- its edge is so keen that you can shave with it.
KEY:
1. Shake	2. Sad	
3. Disappeared	4. Talking	
5. Myth	6. Transportation	
7. Rebuilt	8.Speak misleadingly	
9. Difficult condition	10. Sharp	
TRAINING LESSON 2
Exercise 1: Determine the part of speech of the underlined words in the following sentences:
Announcements of births, marriages and death appear in some newspapers.
The planet Mercury is visible to the naked eye but is not the easiest planet to spot. 
The burglar alarm was activated by mistake.
Be careful with the stimulating effect of coffee.
He is late- he’s probably stuck in a traffic jam.
One of the main cause of the liberation of women was the development of birth-control methods.
Above the snow line, any mountain hollow is permanently occupied with snow. 
The glass factories of Toledo, Ohio, boomed after Michael Owens invented a process that turned out bottles by the thousands. 
Have you got any comments on the new agrarian laws.
 Those so-called friends of hers are a bad influence on her.
Key answers:
1. V	2. Adj	3. N	4. Adj	5. Adj	
6. N	7. V	8. V	9. Adj	10. Adj 
Exercise 2: Read the short paragraph below, underline the nonsense words and try to guess the meanings of the words, basing on the context. 
The big yellow school gleek pulled to a stop at the corner. The driver opened the door and I climbed up the steps to get on board. I walked down the narrow zupher looking for an empty seat. Then I saw my friend Jack waving to me from the last row. “Over here, Janet!” he yelled. I nodded and made my way toward him. I took my norjot filled with books and placed it under the seat. Then I plopped down beside him and enjoyed the ride to blat. 
SUGGESTED KEY: 
Gleek means “bus”
The clue words: big yellow school, pulled to a stop, driver
Zupher means “aisle”
The clue words: walked, narrow, empty seat.
Norjot means “schoolbag”
The clue words: filled with books, placed it under the seat.
Blat means “school”
The clue words: the ride to
Plop means “sit”
The clue words: seat, beside him
III.2. Applying the guessing technique in GCSE examination
III.2.1. Multiple choice section
This section mostly includes the questions referring to the word form. To deal with that type of questions, it is not necessary that students translate and understand the whole sentence, but pay attention to the part of speech, identify then choose the suitable option for the missing part of speech. Below are some model questions quoted from the sample GCSE tests.
Questions
Explaination
Answer
1. Mach numbers describe the velocity of airplanes ______ over the speed of sound.
A. have moved	B. move
C. moving	D. moved	C. moving	D. moved
In this question, we don’t need a tense verb because “describe” is a tense verb, but a participle in active is suitable. 
C
2. Migratory patterns in births ______ term of seasonal changes.
A. in usually be explained 
B. can be explained usually in 
C. can usually be explained in 
D. can be explained in usually
In this question, we need a tense verb coming after the subject, so A is not suitable. Also, adverb of frequency is often after the auxiliary verb. 
C
3. In spite of her abilities, Laura has been _____ overlooked for promotion.
A. repetitive	B. Repeatedly
C. repetition	D. repeat
In this question, we need an adverb coming before or after the main verb. A is an adjective, C is a noun, D is a verb. 
B
4. The letter _________ me of the theft hadn’t been signed.
A. to accuse B. accused 
C. accusing 	D. that accuse
In this question, “hadn’t been signed” is a tense verb, so we just need a present participle instead. A and D are not suitable. B is a passive form. 
C
5. ________ is the money given by an organization to pay for someone’s studies.
A. scholarship 	B. scholar 
C. scholarly 	D. school
In this question, we need a noun as the subject of the sentence. The noun should be something refering to the money
A
6. Richard Wright enjoyed success and influences____ among Black American writers of his eras
A. were paralleled B. are unparalleled 
C. unparalleled	D.the unparalleled 
In this question, “enjoyed” is a tense verb, so we don’t need the other tense verbs, but a participle. A and B are not suitabl