VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES
************************ LÊ THỊ THỦY APPLYING THE TECHNIQUE OF GUESSING
WORD MEANINGS FROM CONTEXT FOR THE 11
TH
FORM STUDENTS AT
LE LOI HIGH SCHOOL, THANH HOA

(SỬ DỤNG KỸ NĂNG ĐOÁN NGHĨA TỪ QUA NGỮ CẢNH ĐỐI VỚI
HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TRƯỜNG THPT LÊ LỢI, THANH HÓA)

M.A .MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi - 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

Table 1: The effectiveness of the guessing technique.
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TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES iv
TABLE OF CONTENT v
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
The rationale of the study 1
Aims and Objectives of the study 2
Significance of the study 2
Research questions 2

II.5. Applying the guessing technique from context to teaching English
vocabulary to 11
th
learners 20
II.5.1. Activities for presenting vocabulary 21
II.5.1.1. Real objects, picture 21
II.5.1.2. Demonstration, miming 21
II.5.1.3. Giving examples 21
II.5.1.4. Giving synonyms, antonyms 22
II.5.1.5. Contextual guesswork 22
II.5.2. Activities for controlled practice stage 23
II.5.2.1. Sentence-making 23
II.5.2.2. Gap-filling 23
II.5.2.3. Fill in the blank with the right form of the word 25
II.5.2.4. Translation 25
II.5.2.5. Matching 26
II.5.3. Activities for free practice stage 26
II.5.3.1. Word-games 27
II.5.3.2.Topic discussion 27
II.6. Summary 28
CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 28
III.1. The results of the pre-test 28
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III.2. The results after the training period 29
III.2.1. The results of students’ diaries 29
III.2.2. The results of the post-tests 29
III.2.3. The results of the questionnaire 31
III.2.4. The results of focus group interview 33
III.3. Summary 35

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. 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.
Although it is evident that the use of contextual clues can be effective in
learning and teaching English vocabulary and provide a means by which students
can quickly increase their existing vocabulary base, it has not attracted much
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attention in terms of classroom instruction. Some researches on the techniques of
teaching vocabulary have mentioned this technique as a good one but little attempt
has been made to integrate this technique training into normal teaching. Even little
has been made to investigate the usefulness of developing students' techniques for
guessing unknown words through context on the improvement of their proficiency
in using vocabulary. All these have motivated the researcher to carry out an action
research on applying the technique of guessing word meanings from context for 11
th

graders at Le Loi high school.
2. Aims and Objectives of the study
The study is aimed at applying the technique of guessing word meanings to
teaching vocabulary so that students can understand word meanings as well as their
form and then use them correctly. On this basis, possible suggestions for improved
effectiveness in students‟ vocabulary learning can be derived.

technique and how this technique affected their vocabulary learning.
Students‟ diaries were also used to support this action research. Students
were asked to write reflective journals to express their reflections on the guessing
technique. The students‟ diaries were collected after every 2 weeks of training and
then were analyzed to find out what the students thought about the technique of
guessing word meanings from context.
6. Scope of the study
The study is concerned with the application of the skill to guess word
meanings from context in teaching and learning vocabulary so as to measure the
degree of effectiveness of this technique in improving students‟ vocabulary. The
study only focuses on 11
th
graders at Le Loi High School, so the results of the study,
though highly expected, may not be readily applied for all students at high schools.

4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, the author will clarify several concepts concerning the
technique of guessing word meanings from context. In addition, different issues
relating to this technique will also be presented.
I.1. Definition of context.
Context (language context) means “textual or discoursal place in which a
particular word or structure can be found” (Gu, 2003:2). It can be as short as a
sentence or as long as several paragraphs, and it will usually contain unknown
words (Rapaport, 2003). Context refers to the words surrounding an unfamiliar

Grellet (1981) defined guessing as “inferring means making use of syntactic,
logical and cultural clues to discover the meaning of unknown elements”. McCarthy
(1990) gave another definition: “Inferring involves creating a schema for the
unknown words, based on world knowledge and previous experience, both of the
world and texts. In other words, inferring means drawing conclusions as to word
meaning by following certain rational steps in the face of the evidence available”.
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.
To conclude, 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.3 Guessing word meanings from context as a technique of vocabulary
teaching and learning
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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” (Nation, 2001:232). Teaching meanings of single
words out of context does not yield good learning outcomes because of the
polysemous nature of words. Thornbury (2002) adds that guessing from the context
is one of the most useful skills learners can acquire and apply inside and outside
classroom and, more importantly, can be taught and implemented relatively easily
(p. 202). 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.

context sometimes simply requires determining which of the several already
familiar concepts the word refers to. Strategic knowledge involves conscious
control over cognitive resources. Nagy points out that training students in use of
context has improved their ability to guess the meaning of unknown words.
Guessing the meaning of a word from context involves a relationship between the
situation model and the text model, as well as knowledge of the nature of the
possible mappings between these two things. Moreover, there are a number of
factors which impinge on the effectiveness of the guessing process that researchers
should take into consideration before conducting any study on this sub-skill.
I.4. Previous studies on guessing word meanings from context.
Being one of the most important strategies in acquiring vocabulary
knowledge, the guessing technique has been a great concern of many researchers. A
good number of studies have been carried out and the results have been expressed in
both optimistic and pessimistic views.
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Research findings about the success of students‟ guessing word meanings
from context are inconclusive. Bensoussan and Laufer (1984) provide a guessing
task which learners had to answer in writing. Their findings show that learners
frequently make wrong guesses. Wrong guesses resulted from giving the incorrect
meaning of a word that had several meanings, or confusing the target word with one
that looked or sounded similar. Particularly, learners have been found to make
guesses, producing an inferred meaning that has little relation to the wider context
of the text. One point needs to be made here, that is the participants of the study
have not been specifically trained to do lexical guessing.
Liu and Nation (1985) were more optimistic after they studied learners‟
ability to guess the meaning of nonsense words used to replace real word at regular
intervals in written texts. They concluded that success was determined by the
relative density of unknown words. Where there was only one nonsense word per
twenty-five words, they were easier to guess than there was one every ten words.

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”.
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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.5.2. 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. It is called “collocational cohesion” by Halliday and Hassan

and further consolidated in form-focused exercises.
In the reading section, vocabulary is taught through activities such as
matching definitions with words, gap-fill, word-form, finding synonyms and
antonyms. However, vocabulary is not practiced as much in other parts of the unit
as expected. Unfortunately, however, some vocabulary is used in speaking and
listening sections, but that vocabulary is not used logically in Language Focus
section. Students do not have much chance to practice the words that they have just
learnt in reading section. Also, many of these activities are not properly designed,
thus they are not highly likely to achieve their purposes.
I.8. Summary
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In this chapter, an overview of context and guessing technique, types of
context clues, approaches to teaching of guessing technique, guessing word
meanings as a technique to teach English vocabulary, some previous studies on
guessing word meaning and vocabulary in English textbook for 11
th
form have been
presented. A theoretical framework has been prepared for investigation in the next
chapter.


Some researchers presented different action research cycles but shared the
same feature, that is a typical action research needed to go from one step to another.
Eileen Ferrance (2000) suggested a 5 steps I action research. Nunan (1992)
suggested seven steps of action research as follows:
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- Step 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)
- Step 2: Preliminary Investigation (Collect data through a variety of means)
- Step 3: Hypothesis (Develop research question)
- Step 4: Intervention (Devise strategies and innovation to be implemented)
- Step 5: Evaluation (Collect data again and analyze it to work out the
findings)
- Step 6: Dissemination (Report the result by running workshop or issuing a
paper)
- Step 7: Follow-up (Find alternative methods to solve the same problem)
Finding that action research is the best choice for the purpose of improving
the students‟ vocabulary acquisition, I decided to carry out an action research.
First of all, the teacher can have a thorough look and investigation on the
vocabulary acquisition of students on daily basis by carrying out an action research.
Besides, the teacher is able to work out a detailed analysis on the students‟
performance during the progress of the research. It helps the teacher design a
detailed program which is most suitable to the class and brings benefits to students.
Secondly, in this action research, the data is taken from every student and
treated individually so the teacher can see students‟ progress easily. She will be able
to get the most up-to-date information and make sensible changes if necessary to the
research while applying it to meet the demand of the students. The teacher can
spend more time practicing contextualized vocabulary presentation and paying more
attention when giving feedback to students. Students‟ performance monitoring
records are collected every two weeks, and any potential problems can be solved in
time.

particular words from the context.

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II.3.2. Data collection instruments
II.3.2.1. Tests
The instrumentation used in this study included a pre-test, two post-tests to
measure whether students change over time due to a treatment. The post-tests were
prepared carefully by the researcher. In the tests, there are a multiple-choice tests
with four options, and reading comprehension tests. In each question, the students
are required to use the contextual guess work to determine their option. The aim of
the post-tests was to reveal the efficacy of the treatments provided to the group
during the research. The post-tests were taken after week 4 and week 6.
II.3.2.2. Students’ diaries
After every 2 weeks of training, the teacher asked the students to write their
diaries at home expressing what they thought about this technique of teaching
vocabulary. Diaries were thought to be a valuable research tool as students could
freely express their feelings, reflections, observations or interpretations about their
teacher‟s ways of teaching as well as the technique that teacher applied in teaching
vocabulary. At home, students could write down any thoughts or feelings without
any interferences and their diaries would be more reliable.
II.3.2.3. Questionnaire
After 6 weeks of training this technique, a questionnaire of 7 questions was
given to 38 students in the class to get the general information about how this
technique of teaching affected students in their vocabulary learning. The students
were asked to fill in the questionnaire within 10 minutes, then teacher collected the
questionnaires, read them and found out how effective the techniquee was.
II.3.2.4. Focus group interview
After 6 weeks of training, an interview was conducted to obtain more in-
depth data about how students assessed their progress when applying guessing

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belonged to one of the six topics that students learn at grade 11. The students did the
test in forty-five minutes; after that I collected the pieces of paper to get the results.
Step 3: Hypothesis (Develop research question)
From the preliminary investigation, I developed the following hypothesis for
my action research:
The technique of guessing word meanings from context helps 11
th
graders to learn
vocabulary better.
Step 4: Intervention (Devise strategies and innovation to be implemented)
In trying to make the technique of guessing word meanings from context
more effective for students, I read books on how to present word meanings in
context and selected the activities and exercises that could help me present and get
students practice vocabulary in contexts. The criterion for selection was the
activities and exercises that were appropriate to the students‟ proficiency. Then I
used those activities and exercises in the classroom with my students during three
lessons in three weeks. Each lesson lasted 45 minutes. The lessons were designed as
follows:
Lesson 1:
There were two main parts in this lesson:
- Firstly, in the instruction part, I presented the guessing strategy suggested by
Nation and Coady (1988). The strategy consists of five steps and I
demonstrated the steps to the students, using the examples prepared in
advance.
- Secondly, the practice part included an exercise. On doing the exercise, the
students could apply what they have learnt in the instruction section,
especially step one and step three. The students were required to identify the
part of speech of the underlined words and predict their meanings in the text.