Reasons for Vocabulary Teaching and Learning

1981 cited in Nation, 1990: 161 proposes a set of stages as presented in figure 2.1 Bruton and Samuda’s Guessing Procedure. Figure 2.1 Bruton and Samuda’s Guessing Procedure From: Bruton Samuda, 1981 in Nation, 1990 Stage 1 Stage 2 No Stage 3 Yes Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Backup Focus on the Unknown Word Teacher Asks for Guesses Students Hazard Guesses Are Any Students Close? Context Clues Leading to Approximate Meaning Justify Choices Teacher Elaboration Clarke Nation 1980 cited in Nation, 1990 also proposes a set of stages in contextual guessing strategy which is considered to be simpler than those proposed by Bruton Samuda 1981 cited in Nation, 1990. Clarke Nation’s stages of guessing words meaning are in the following. Step 1 Look at the unknown word and decide its part of speech. Is it a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb? Step 2 Look at the clause or sentence containing the unknown word. If the unknown word is a noun, what adjectives describe it? What verb is it near? That is, what does this noun do, and what is done to it? If the unknown word is a verb, what noun 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? 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 a conjunction like but, because, if, when, or by an adverb like however, as a result. Often there will be no signal. The possible types of relationship include cause and effect, contrast, inclusion, time, exemplification, and summary. Punctuation may also serve as a clue. Semicolons often signal a list of inclusion relationship; dashes may signal restatement. Reference words like this, that, and such also provide useful information. Step 4 Use the knowledge you have gained from Step 1-3 to guess the meaning of the word. Step 5 Check that your guess is correct a. See 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. Replace the unknown word with your guess. If the sentence makes sense, your guess is probably correct. c. Break the unknown word into its prefix, root, and suffix, if possible. If the meanings of the prefix and root correspond to your guess, good. If not, look at your guess again, but do not change anything if you feel reasonably certain about your guess using the context. Clarke Nation, 1980 cited in Nation, 1990 In adopting contextual guessing strategy to find the meaning of unknown words, students need some contextual information to support the process of guessing. Sternberg and Powell 1983 cited in Read, 2000 proposes a Theory of Learning Words from Context which consists of two components. Those components are external and internal context. Sternberg and Powell’s components of Learning Words from Context Theory are presented in table 2.1 in the following page. From the table, it can be seen that the external context is categorized based on the kinds of semantics information which is available in the text around the target words Read, 2000:54, while the internal context is categorized based on the morphological structure of the words such as prefix and suffix. Citing again from Read that one of the components of Sternberg and Powell’s theory is that for each kind of context, there is a set of mediating variables which determines how effective the reader is to take the advantage of the clues that are available Sternberg and Powell, 1983 cited in Read, 2000:54. The example of the first mediating variable in external context is “the number of occurrence of the unknown word”. It means that the students will find the inference easier if the words are frequently occurring in the text.