Abstract

New trends in vocabulary learning focus on strategic vocabulary learning to create more active and independent language learners. Utilising suitable contextual clues strategies is seen as vital in enabling and equipping language learners with the skill to guess word meaning accurately, moving away from dependency on a dictionary to improve their academic reading experience. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to investigate types of contextual clues selected and the extent of learners’ ability to obtain accurate word meaning through contextual guessing. The participants were Business Management students of various programmes who were taught contextual clues strategies and tested using class work sheet to analyse their utilisation of the strategies. Results indicated most participants depended on variety of contextual clues strategies, particularly cognitive strategies. The participants were also observed to be independent in guessing word meaning by making conscious decisions, as well as showing minimal reference to the instructor when attempting to utilise the strategies taught. Nevertheless, other interesting results indicated unsuccessful accurate guesses by some participants despite similar strategy choice. Overall conclusions indicated a degree of successful language learners who self direct themselves by making conscious and informed strategy choices. This leads to more emphasis on the importance of teaching and learning how to utilise suitable contextual clues strategies in continuous effort in improving and utilising the skill.

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