Learning Unknown Words in Text: The Frequency of Context Clues

• In Event: Examining Vocabulary Learning Through Multimodal, Multilingual, Morphological, and Contextual Approaches

Abstract

This study used an empirically based, reliable system for classifying the clues in children’s text to explore how the system can be used to improve classroom instruction in contextual analysis. Specifically, we examined how often each of the clues appears in children’s text by investigating text surrounding target words in a wide variety of children's books. Results showed the most commonly occurring clues in children’s text are the features clue, picture clue, and the phrase/clause clue. This study is of importance for teachers and teacher educators when considering how to best teach students to engage in the often-used strategy of contextual analysis (Hairrell et al. 2011).

Authors

• Susan P Dowds, St Cloud State University

• Heather Rogers Haverback, Towson University

• Meghan M. Parkinson, University of North Florida