Types of Context Clues

24 a word. When learners face this kind of situation, teacher can assist them to learn the word from its context. It can be done by recognizing partial knowledge of a word. Dale O’Rouke 1971 gave an example that learners may know the word octopus, which means an eight-legged sea creature, from Biology. They may also know the word octagon, which means an eight-sided figure, from Math. Then, when learners meet the word octave, which means a series of eight notes in music, they have already recognized that the word octo has something to do with eight. From the example above, it can be summarized that in determining the meaning of an unknown word or a new word, learners can guess the meaning of the word by seeing its context clues.

b. Types of Context Clues

There are a number of different context clues that can help the students in inferring the meaning of an unknown word. They are internal and external context clues and relationship between words. 1 Internal and External Context Clues In order to be successful in applying contextual guessing strategy in vocabulary learning, the students should pay attention to the availability of contextual information in the context. Read 2000 defined contextual information as contextual clues which help the students in guessing the meaning of unknown words in texts. In accordance with the contextual information, Sternberg Powell 1985 cited in Read, 2000 proposed a theory of learning words from context which consists of two components, specifically external context and internal PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 25 context. Sternberg Powell’s components of a theory of learning words from context can be seen in Figure 2.1 EXTERNAL CONTEXT Contextual cues Temporal cues Whenhow oftenfor how long does X the unknown word occur? Spatial cues Where can X be found? Value cues How valuable or desirable is X? What do people feel about it? Stative descriptive cues What are the physical features of X [size, shape, colour, odour, feel, etc.]? Functional descriptive cues What are the purposes of X? What is it used for? Causalenablement cues What causes X or enables it to occur? Class membership cues What class of things does X belong to? Equivalence cues What does X mean? What does it compare or contrast to? Mediating Variables The number of occurrences of the unknown word The variability of contexts in which multiple occurrences of the unknown words appear The density of unknown words The importance of the unknown words to understanding the context in which it is embedded The perceived helpfulness of the surrounding context in understanding the meaning of the unknown word The concreteness of the unknown word and the surrounding context The usefulness of prior knowledge in cue utilization INTERNAL CONTEXT Contextual cues Prefix cues Stem cues Suffix cues Interactive cues where two or three word parts convey information in combination Mediating variables The number of occurrences of the unknown word The density of unknown words The density of decomposable unknown words The importance of the unknown word to understanding the context in which it is embedded The usefulness of previously known information in cue utilization Figure 2.1 Components of a Theory of Learning Words from Context Sternberg Powell, 1983 cited in Read, 2000 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 26 2 Relationship between Words Lewis and Hill 2002 stated that the students were able to infer the meaning of an unknown word by analyzing the relationships between the unknown words and other words. In consequence, by recognizing certain kinds of relationship, it would help the students to acquire the meaning of an unknown word easier. Lewis Hill 2002: 101 explained kinds of relationship between words as follows. a Synonyms According to Lewis Hilll 2002, a synonym refers to “the similar denotative meaning.” In other words, it can be said that a synonym presents the same concept of a word. E.g.: ‘enormous’ means the same as ‘very large’. b Antonyms Lewis and Hill 2002 stated that an antonym refers to the opposite meaning of a word. The easier example is ‘hot’ and ‘cold.’ However, sometimes, the antonym of the word ‘hot’ does not always means ‘cold.’ The students have to be informed about the question of degree, for instances, ‘hot’-‘warm’-‘cool’- ‘cold.’ From that example, it is better to introduce the students by asking them to learn the extremes first and later the intermediate words. c Complements Lewis Hill 2002 defined a complement as two existing words in which when one appears, it automatically eliminates the other. Thus, the complement can be used to describe that the meaning of a word depends directly on the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 27 meaning of other words; for example, the word ‘single’ is possible said as ‘not married.’ d Converses Lewis Hill 2002 defined a converse as “each of a pair of words implies the other.” The examples of converse are parentchild and employeremployee. e Hyponyms Lewis Hill 2002 proposed that a hyponym can be described by this example; car, van, bus, and lorry are hyponym of vehicle. In learning vocabulary, the meaning of words is difficult to be inferred without translating into L1. However, sometimes, it is very helpful when the hyponyms are to be told in this way, for instances, a carnation is a kind of flower. The relationship between words was also revealed by Nation 1990, he conveyed that the relationships can be signalled by a conjunction, like but, because, if, when, or by an adverb, such as however and as a result. Nation 1990: 162 also proposed that sometimes the relationships can be seen in the form of rhetorical relationship, such as cause and effect, contrast, inclusion, time, exemplification, and summary. Moreover, the presence of punctuation can also be said as a clue in guessing, for instance, semi colons that often describe a list of inclusion relationship or dashes that often reveal restatements. Furthermore, the availability of reference words, such as this, that, and such can also provide useful information to arrive at the closer meaning of an unknown word. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 28

c. Procedure in Applying Contextual Guessing Strategy