The Effects Of Contextualization On Learning Vocabulary

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is how learners can best build a large vocabulary through reading. A review of the current literature on vocabulary acquisition reveals a spectrum of theoretical positions ranging from highly cognitive approaches that stress the memorization of decontextualized lists, to highly naturalistic approaches that stress implicit, contextualized learning or learning through the example sentences.

Decontextualized word lists have been used extensively to teach vocabulary. Presenting vocabulary in list form is an efficient study method in which students can learn large numbers of words in a short time. The difficulty with such lists, however, is that they present words that have been stripped of all context-based meaning To remedy this, lists are now generally tied to a reading passage to provide context These lists provide a format, which is easy to memorize, and subsequent exposure to meaning in context, which allows students to fine-tune the approximate meanings learned from the ...

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in most cases words have to be met 5-7 times before they are admitted to long-term memory. This is how, through reading, we learn the words of our own language. Words are also more easily learned if you are active - drawing a picture of the word, writing your own definition of it in English or the mother tongue, thinking of an example sentence to use it in. This is better than simply writing the word and its native language equivalent.

Contextual Guessing vs. Dictionary Use

It has been shown that students who use a bilingual dictionary learn more vocabulary than students who read without a dictionary (Luppescu & Day, 1993). However when students turn to a dictionary for every ...

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