This document discusses using contextual clues to understand unfamiliar words. It explains that contextual clues are surrounding words that provide hints about a word's meaning. Students are often challenged by questions involving big words. Using contextual clues from the surrounding text can help students make educated guesses about a word's definition. The document provides examples of using contextual clues and recommends skimming, scanning, and searching for these clues to decode meanings.

1. Reading 101
Contextual Clues –
Understanding big words quickly

2. Learning Objectives

To make educated guesses of unknown words
by reading between the lines for clues.

3. Introduction


Students generally have difficulties in answering a
question when faced with an unfamiliar word.
This 'big' words appear when there are passages:
Booket A – Grammar
Vocabulary
Vocabulary Cloze
Booklet B – Editing
Comprehension Cloze
Comprehension OE

4. Introduction

Vocabulary helps you in:
1) Making meaning – when you are thinking of the
right words to say
2) Understand others' meaning – when you are
reading what others say
3) Create better meaning – when you express
yourself skillfully with words

A lack of vocabulary knowledge affect your
answers.

5. Answer affected with poor vocabulary


A lack of vocabulary knowledge affect your
answers.
In Comprehenion OE for example, what happens
when you are asked for the meaning of a 'big'
word?
For e.g.,“What does the writer mean when he says
he is 'ponderous'?”
In these cases, vocabulary skills come in handy to
'guess' or 'estimate' the meanings of unfamiliar
words.

6. Vocabulary Skills to improve Vocab

One of the Vocabulary Skills is learning how to
use Contextual Clues.

7. Using Contextual Clues


'Contextual' comes from the word 'Context' which
means the 'the surrounding text'
This means that the surrounding words around
any big word is important to help in determining
its meaning.

8. Using Contextual Clues

9. Using Contextual Clues

Using the surrounding words as a clue for the
word brief, we will know:
in Example 1, that brief means the article is short
on details as it doesn't say much.
in Example 3, that brief means the coach – as a
leader/manager – is giving a few instructions or
a short speech before the game started.

In short, using surrounding words as key words
can help you to decode the meaning of an
unfamilar word easily and effectively.

10. Traditional Method of Meaning

To know the meaning of a big word, we can:
1) look for them in the dictionary
2) ask our teacher or friend
3) leave it and be none the wiser
4) read it many times in different books and form
a guess
All the above takes time.

11. Skim, Scan, Search for clues
Coach Carter always briefed the football players
before the games as it is his habit.
Whose brief is that hanging on the clothesline in the
rain?
The news article is interesting but it is so brief that it
doesn't really say much.

12. Benefits
Understanding all the big words will help you in
these sections.
Booket A – Grammar
Vocabulary
Vocabulary Cloze
Booklet B – Editing
Comprehension Cloze
Comprehension OE

13. Learning Activity
1. We felt a funny sensation when we the poison
ivy brushed against our skin.
Educated Guess:
2. He lost his sense of sight in an accident and he
walks around with a stick now.
Educated Guess:
3. It was insensible for her to jog alone in the
forest at night.
Educated Guess:

14. Learning Activity Answers
1. We felt a funny sensation when we the poison
ivy brushed against our skin.
Educated Guess: feeling
2. He lost his sense of sight in an accident and he
walks around with a stick now.
Educated Guess: ability , perception
3. It was insensible for her to jog alone in the
forest at night.
Educated Guess: unwise

15. Discussion
What is Contextual Clue?
How do we use it?

16. In summary


Contextual clues help us make educated guess
of big words as they point to the meaning.
We can use skimming and scanning to help us
find contextual clues as the clues are key
words.