Coyle (1984) compared words in context to words in isolation. Children aged 8 and 10
years were asked first to choose the correct meaning (from four alternatives) of unfamiliar
words in isolation. The words were then presented in passages constructed to provide
contextual cues. The children were told to read the passages, either with a neutral
instruction, or an instruction alerting them to contextual information. The word meanings
had to be chosen again from four possibilities. Scores on the words-in-context were
significantly higher than on the words-in isolation test, but there was no effect of calling
attention to the contextual cues by instruction. Children use context to infer meaning of
novel words without being directly instructed to do so.
The studies discussed so far indicate that some learning from context does occur.
However, a most interesting facet of the literature in this area is that the power of
contextual effects is interpreted in markedly different ways by different researchers. Nagy
et. al. (1985) characterize the effect as substantial and hypothesize that the overall
influence of context on vocabulary learning is large because the volume of reading
students typically do, allows for a great accumulation of encounters with unknown words,
and ultimately, learning of a substantial numbers of words. On the other hand, Jenkins,
Stein and Wysoski (1984) conclude that learning from context does not come easily or in
large quantities.
2.4.2 Decoding of Internal Context
By internal context, Sternberg and Powell (1983) refer to the morphemes within a word.
Multiple morphemes such as prefixes, suffixes, and stems, give the word meaning. Again,
the theory proposes a set of contextual cues and a set of mediating variables that together
determine the quality of a definition that can be inferred from a word’s internal context.
Contextual Cues
Four types of contextual cues have been identified: Prefix cues; Stem cues; Suffix cues;
Interactive cues. Interactive cues are formed when two or even three of the word parts
listed above convey information in combination that is not conveyed by a given cue
considered in isolation from the rest of the word. The usefulness of these kinds of cues in
decoding meaning can be shown by the following example used by Stemberg and Powell
(1983).
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