Some factors causing dificulties in guessing meaning from context

CANTHO UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Supervisor:

Researcher:

BUI THI HONG ANH

HUYNH CAM DAO

Code: 7032544
B.A. in ELS
Course: 2003 - 2007

June 2007


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT..........................................................................................................
.......................
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Problem and Rationale
1.2. Research Question
1.3. Thesis Organization
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Definition of Reading
2.2. Context

2.2.1 Definition of Context
2.2.2. Some Types of Context and the Importance of Context
2.2.3. Some Types of Knowledge Contributed to Contextual Inference
2.3. Context Clues
2.4. Procedures of Guessing Meaning From Context
2.5. Some Factors Causing Difficulties in Guessing Meaning from Context
Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1. What Is a Case Study?
3.2. Participants
3.3 Research Instruments
CHAPTER 4 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Questionnaire And Test Analysis
Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
5.1. Conclusions
5.2. Implications
5.3. Limitations
5.4. Recommendations for Further Research
REFERENCES
APPENDICE 1
APPENDICE 2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


First, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Ms. Bùi Thị Hồng
Anh, my supervisor, for her support and dedication to my research. She
passionately contributed her ideas and time to shaping my research paper,
reading my drafts, giving me valuable advice and correcting my drafts. Without
her help, I would not have completed my thesis.

Second, I also wish to send my best gratitude to Mr. Nguyễn Thu Hương,
who gave me a lot of encouragement and useful sources of material.
Third, I am thankful to all of the teachers of the English Department for
their devotion to teaching me from the first year until now and to the executive
staff who gave me an opportunity to conduct the research.
Fourth, I also wish to show my sincere thanks to the entire Bachelor of
English students of course 30 for helping me complete the questionnaire and
the test.
Finally, I am so grateful to all of my classmates and my friends for
offering me a lot of spiritual support so that I could complete the thesis.

ABSTRACT
Because of the density of unknown words on the TOEFL test, students
often encounter many problems in guessing meaning of new words when doing
homework in TOEFL books that their teachers assigned them. Finding out the
factors causing difficulties in guessing meaning from context that the third-year
English-majored students encounter is the aim of this study. 60 questionnaires
and a vocabulary test are delivered to them as means of investigation. After
analyzing and synthesizing the data, the main factors are categorized as
follows: lack of vocabulary knowledge, prior knowledge and the knowledge of
affixes in English as well as the insufficient context of the text. Learners
affected by these typical factors because they have not invested as much time
as they can in studying new vocabularies, practicing exercises as well as
reading books. At the ultimate stage of my research, some particular measures


are mentioned to help students tackle each type of factor causing difficulties in
their guessing meaning process. I hope that this research will be a useful
reference resource for teachers in choosing and designing suitable exercises to
reduce their students’ difficulties.

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Problem and Rationale
Reading is considered to be challenging to English learners because it
requires readers to have not only strong vocabulary knowledge but also reading
strategies. Vocabulary acquisition is not easy; learners need a durable process
of learning and practicing everyday to acquire a certain amount of vocabulary.
Although we have many ways of learning unknown words, we cannot
remember all we have ever learned by heart. We just remember some familiar
words that we usually encounter or use them more often than others. English
vocabulary is very large and everyday it is supplemented with so many new
words that we cannot find all of them in a dictionary. Sometimes, we cannot
comprehend an article in a magazine or an advertisement on the Internet that
has many unfamiliar words. Guessing meaning from context is considered as a
useful way used wisely by English learners as a foreign or a second language
when they read for enjoyment or for knowledge. Teachers often encourage
English-majored students to do further reading assignments from different
sources such as TOEFL, IELTS, TOEIC…to improve their reading skills as
well as reading strategies. Learners are required to have strong vocabulary
knowledge and skills to do the tests well. Poor readers cannot do the reading
exercises well because of the new words in the text. “ The problem for poor


readers is not only knowing fewer words than good readers but also having no
strategies for deriving meaning of an unfamiliar words from context to get
comprehension” (MC Keown, 1985; Tomesen & Aarnoutse, 1998). In fact, to
guess the meaning of a new word correctly is very problematic. My classmates
and I often face many difficulties in doing reading homework. I sometimes
misunderstand the meaning of a reading text as I make a wrong guess at new

words. It is hypothesized that if students are aware of the factors causing
difficulties in meaning guessing and find the solutions to their problems, they
will improve their reading skills.
1.2. Research Question
In my study, I attempt to find out the answers to the research question,
that is,
“What factors causing difficulties do the third-year English students
encounter in guessing meaning of an unknown word from context?”. In order to
find out reliable answers to the above question, I have to design a questionnaire
and a reading test and then to examine whether students’ answers in the
questionnaire sheet correspond to their performance in the reading test.
1.3. Thesis Organization
This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one is the introduction; chapter
two is literature review. In this chapter, I will first review published writings to
explore what has been presented on this subject and will then seek to draw
some conclusions from those findings. A description of methods and
procedures is included in chapter three. Chapter four is the analysis of the data
collected from the third-year English-majored students. This chapter will reveal
the factors causing difficulties that these students encounter when doing
vocabulary exercises. The final chapter, chapter five, consists of some
limitations of the study and implications for teachers and students as well as
some recommendations for further research. Through the collection and
analysis of data, I will figure out the factors causing difficulties in meaning
guessing and have some suggestions to help the English-majored students find
out their own ways to tackle their problems. Teachers may reconsider the


exercises that they have given to their students so far, and then think of the
measures to improve their students’ reading skills. I hope that the following
sections will help both teachers and students have an insight into my thesis.

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, I would like to introduce the background research related
to my topic. Some factors causing difficulties in guessing meaning from
context hypothesized by previous researchers are also presented. They
include: (1) inattentive Homonym, (2) lack of vocabulary knowledge, (3)
affixes knowledge, (4) prior knowledge, and insufficient context.
2.1. Definition of Reading
Reading is a process of constructing meaning from written texts. It is
a complex skill requiring the coordination of a number of interrelated sources
of information (Anderson et al., 1985, p.1). Similarly, Wixson, Peters, Weber,
and Roeber, (1987, p.1), cite a definition of reading: reading is the process of
constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction among: (1) the reader's
existing knowledge; (2) the information suggested by the text being read; and
(3) the context of the reading situation. Moreover, according to the “Oxford
English Dictionary”, reading is the activity of someone who reads. In fact, we
read for a variety of purposes; we often vary cognitive process and knowledge
resources that we use. Therefore, it is not just straightforward to identify a
purpose for reading as the single way to interpret what we mean by “reading”,
(Fielding 1988)
2.2. Context
2.2.1 Definition of Context
According to Harold Levine (2004, p.20), a writer of “ 22,000 Words for
TOEFL Examinations”, context is a part of a passage in which a word is used


and helps to explain that word. Suppose someone asks you the meaning of
“bear”, you won’t be able to tell him the meaning because “ bear”, as presented
to you, has no context. But if he says “polar bear”, you will know he is talking

about an animal. If, on the other hand, he says, “Please stop that whistling – I
can’t bear it”, you will know that in this context “bear” means endure or stand.
Like Harold Levine, Werner and Kaplan (1952) confirm: “context is additional
information that readers can infer/ guess/ figure out the meaning of a word”.
However, Hirst (2000) supposes that context is anything in the circumstances
of the utterance, and just anything in the participants’ knowledge or current
experience. It is believed that it is possible to “figure out” a meaning of a word
“from context”. Other terms for this process that can be found in the literature
include “construct”, “deduce”, “derive”, “educe”, “guess”, “ infer”, and
predict” (Putam, 1960; Fodor, 1975; Rapaport, 1998, Horst, 2003, p.7). “
Readers can guess meaning of a word from context and from the reader’s
background knowledge” (e.g., Granger, 1977; Stern berg et al, 1993; Hasting &
Lytinen, 1994). Context as used in these studies has the connotation of being in
the external world (in particular in the text containing the words); “background
knowledge” has a connotation of being the reader’s mind.
To sum up, context is not only an external world in particular in the text
containing the words but also reader’s background knowledge, which the
readers must base on to guess the meaning of a new word.
2.2.2. Types of Context and the Importance of Context
According to Harold Levine (2004) there are generally three kinds of context:
context with contrasting words, context with similar words, and “common
sense” context.
Context with contrasting words. When you want to guess the meaning
of a new word, you have to find a clue to the meaning of this word in an
opposite word or a contrasting idea.
Context with similar words. You may discover the meaning of an
unfamiliar word or an expression from a similar word or an expression in the
context.

“Common sense” context. is the one different from those we have
known so far. It has neither an opposite word nor a similar word to help us get
the meaning. However, it does, offers a clue in which we find out the meaning
of a new word inferred from the context.
Do you know what famished means? If not, you should not be able to tell from
the following context:
“The morning had passed way, and Rip felt famished for want of his
breakfast.”(Washington Irving’s “ Rip Van Winkle”)
How do you feel when the morning has gone by and you have not had
breakfast? Very hungry, of course, even starved. Therefore, famished in the
above context must mean “very hungry”.
In fact, readers make a good guess if they clearly know the kinds of context
and have an appropriate way in guessing meaning to each context. Why is the
context important?. It is important because it gives us the meaning of not only
familiar

words,

but

also

unfamiliar

words.

Furthermore,

contextual

vocabularies acquisition is the active deliberate acquisition of a word meaning
in a text by reasoning from context without external sources of help such as
dictionaries or people. In addition, Duckin (1987, p.17) proposes that using
context clues is an important part of vocabulary acquisition. According to
Anderson and Freebody (1979, p.17), students can increase their vocabulary
knowledge through using context clues with morphological analysis. “Context
may be the single most important aid in guessing word” Hardin (1980, p.19).
Context nearly always provides the necessary clues; even the dictionary also
makes use of context. A good dictionary provides the meaning by using the
word in sentence more often than the definition itself.
In brief, researchers propose some common types of context in order to help
readers differ one context from the others encountered in a reading text. They
also emphasize that context plays an important role in guessing meaning of a
new word.
2.2.3. Types of Knowledge Contributed to Contextual Inference


Word knowledge To infer the meaning of any particular word in context,
it is helpful to know the meaning of the words around it. However, how to
understand the neighboring words is a problem likely to be faced by many
foreign language readers. Garcia (1991) cites that knowing a word involves
much more knowing a definition. Besides information about a word meaning,
word knowledge helps us recognize other components such as syntactic frame
in which a word occurs, the word’s collocation potential, morphology (the
prefixes and suffixes it occurs), and its semantic relationship with other words.
Syntactic knowledge. The meaning of a word determines its syntactic
behavior. The syntactic of a word provides crucial information (Landau &
Gleitman, 1985). Students are able to use parts of speech and other syntactic
information as clues to the meaning of new words. Brown (1975) shows that
the use of a word as a noun or a verb leads students to different inferences

about its meaning. Structural analysis allows a reader who encounters an
unknown word to limit feasible definitions by approaching the whole word and
identifying its part (Vacca, 1989)
Prior knowledge is what the reader has before reading, i.e.. the beliefs the
readers brings to the text are available for use in order to understand it. (
Baldwin , 1986)
World knowledge connotes general factual knowledge about things other
than what the text is about. (Hirsch 1987, 2003)
2.3. Context clues
What are context clues?
Nagy (1985, p.2) indicates that context clue is a crucial strategy dealing
with unknown words when readers read a text. The ability to infer the meaning
from context is clearly a valuable skill that should play a part in reading. The
more clues take into account, the greater are the chances of guessing an
unknown word. When dealing with a new text, students should be encouraged
to make a guess of the word meaning rather than to look up a new word
immediately in a dictionary. To make clear the above ideas, Elaine Kirn (1995,
p.5) supports that when you read, you do not need to look up the meanings of


all new words in a dictionary. You can guess the meaning of them through the
other items in context - the other words in the sentence or the other sentences in
the paragraph.
The following are introduced to recognize context clues:
Ø

Sometimes a sentence gives a definition of a new vocabulary item or

information about it. This information may be in parentheses (), after a dash (-),
or after a comma (,), or it may be introduced by the words for example, for

instance
Ø

Sometimes the meaning or a clue to the meaning of a new vocabulary

item is in another sentence part.
Ø

Sometimes another word or words in another sentence or sentence part

has the opposite meaning of a new vocabulary item.
Ø

Certain abbreviations (shortened forms words) help you understand a

new word or phrase. Here are two:
e.g. = for example
i.e. = that is = in other words
Example: this is a group of micro entrepreneurs-i.e… People who own
and run their own business
What are micro entrepreneurs? They are people who own and run their own
small business.
Ø

Context has an explanation of the new word, but in order to think of a

synonym you need to change a part of speech.
Example: for many people, there seems to be no escape from poverty;
in other words, they are poor and they have no hope that this will change.
In this example, you see that poverty is close in meaning to poor, but

the two words are different parts of speech. Poverty is a noun and poor is an
adjective (what is poverty,
Ø

poorness

or the condition of being poor).

Sometimes a parallel structure of two sentences or clauses can help

you understand new words. In a parallel structure, there are often synonyms
corresponding words or opposites.


Example: When an American president takes a vacation, his assistants usually
emphasize to new reporters the work that he does during his vacation. In
contrast, when the prime minister of Japan recently took a vacation, his aides
emphasized to the press that his purpose was relaxation- no work at all.
You can know a person who has a position that corresponds to an American
president is prime minister thanks to the parallel structure of two sentences.
The synonym for assistants is aides
The synonym for new reporters is the press.
Ø

The prefix (beginning) of a word sometimes gives a clue to its

meaning. Some prefixes create a word with an opposite meaning.
Example: We’ve discovered many unusual hotels in our travels.
“ Discover” means to “ uncover” information - i.e., to find out something that
we did not know before. Unusual means “not usual”- i.e., out of the ordinary.

Ø

There can be words in a text that expresses the opposite of a new

vocabulary item usually in a negative clause or after words that show contrast
(e.g. but, yet, however, on the other hand, by contrast, and although.)
Example: The members of various tribes in each center of culture had frequent
contact with one another and shared similar characteristics, but they did not
have much in common with tribes in other culture areas.
The word or expression in the above sentence that express the opposite
meaning of the word “share” is “ did not have in common”. We can find out
the opposite meaning of the word “ share” through a clue word “ but”.
In conclusion, context clues, which are information given, may be a
definition, an example, a contrastive word, or similar words… to aid readers to
make a successful guess. Context clues play an important role in inferring a
new word.
2.4. Procedures of Guessing Meaning from Context
According to Nation (1990; p.162) strategy is just a means of acquiring the
unconscious skill that an efficient reader has already had. He assembles the
“steps” as follows:


Step 1 Look at the unknown word and decide its part of speech.
Is it a noun, an adjective or an adverb?
Step 2 Look at the clause or sentence containing the unknown word.
If the unknown word is a noun, what adjectives describe it?
What verb is it near?
That is, what does this noun do, or what is done to it?
If the unknown word is a verb, what noun does it go with?
Is it modified by an adverb?

If it is an adjective, what noun does it go with?
If it is an adverb, what verb is it modifying?
If the unknown word is an adjective, what noun does it modify?
If the unknown word is an adverb, what verb does it modify?
Step 3 Look at the relationship between the clause and sentence containing the
unknown word and other sentences or paragraphs. Sometimes this relationship
will be signaled by a conjunction like but, because, if, when, or by an adverb
like however, as a result. Often there will be no signal punctuation served as a
clue. Semicolons often signal a list of inclusion relationship; dashes may signal
restatement. Reference words like this, that, and such also provide useful
information. The possible types of relationship include cause and effect,
contrast, inclusion, time, exemplification, and summary.
Step 4 Use the knowledge you have gained from steps 1 to 3 to guess the
meaning of the word.
Step 5 Check that your guess is correct
1. See that the part of speech of your guess is the same as the part of speech of
the unknown word. If it is not the same, then something is wrong with your
guess.
2. Replace the unknown word with your guess. If the sentence makes sense,
your guess is probably correct.
3.Break the unknown word into its prefix, root, and suffix, if possible. If the
meanings of the prefix and root correspond to your guess, good, if not, look at


your guess again, but do not change anything if you feel reasonably certain
about your guess using the context
(Adapted 1990:162-3)
Like other foreign language learners, English students at Can Tho University
apply the above procedure in their guessing process. They followed each step
in guessing meaning of a new word. However, sometimes they fail in inferring

meaning from context. So, I would like to explore the difficulties that affect
these students’ performance.

2.5. Some Factors Causing Difficulties in Guessing Meaning from Context
Guessing meaning of a word from context clues is the most useful of all
strategies, deliberately studying words on word cards, and using word part and
dictionary. To learn this strategy and to use it effectively, learners need to know
95- 98% of the words in a text, that is the unknown words to be guessed must
contain plenty of comprehensible supporting contexts (Norbert Schmitt, 2002).
This degree of vocabulary coverage means that only 1 out of 20 words in a
simplified text is unknown; if the density of unknown words is too high, the
opportunities of correct guessing meaning of unfamiliar words are declined.
Strategies in making contextual inferences can fail when conditions for
guessing meaning are not favorable. Many researchers find that meaning is one
of the factors causing problems in guessing meaning of a word from context.
Ruhl (1989) cites that words can be assigned a single, general meaning and
apparent meaning variability explained by general rules of inferences and by
knowledge of the situation to which the utterance refers. For example, a
dictionary may list among the meaning of the phrase “ take off”: “ to leave a
place, especially in a hurry” (as in: “ When he saw me coming, he took off in
the opposite direction”) or “ to become successful or popular very quickly or
suddenly (as in: “ The new magazine has really taken off”). The difference of
“take off” can be attributed entirely to contextual factor.
In addition, foreign language learners sometimes misrecognize word forms
and this misrecognition results in unsuccessful cases of contextual guessing


(Huckin &Bloch, 1993, p.173). If readers think they have successfully
identified a word-form, they will naturally access the standard meaning for that
form and unnecessarily consider the context for confirmation. Therefore, wordform identification has an important role before the contextual guessing starts

(Huckin & Haynes, 1993, p.290). Contextual guesswork does not necessarily
enhance word learning. It might depend on how much guesswork is involved
(Huckin & Haynes, 1993, p.290).
Moreover, in a case study of technical university learners: “An Investigation of
Low Achievers’ Process of Word Inferring”, Ming-yueh shen (2002, p.13)
concludes that pseudo-familiar with transparent words is one of the factors
causing difficulties in guessing meaning from context.
Pseudo familiar with words:
Cases of pseudo-familiarity in this study involved words that look similar to
the unknown words. An example in his study includes words “motion” and
“major”, “stand” and “start”, “thrust” and “trust”. When the context was
supplied for the word “motion” with the context test, the students still guessed
it as “ major”. (“Scientists took slow motion pictures of chicken running. They
studied the pictures carefully. They found out that chicken’s head does not
move back and forth.”)
Examples of learner’s pseudo familiar with words
Word meaning Incorrect guess
context

inattentive to

Pseudo
familiar

Number
of students

Percentage

clue

Motion

major

1/7

14%

stand

start

1/7

14%

Thrust

trust

1/7

14%

Moreover, Paul (2003) cites idioms are confusing. For example, the
common English expression “Keep your hair on! “doesn’t mean you are telling


someone not to have their haircut or to hold on to their wig. It simply means “
keep calm! Or don’t get excited!” It is true that all languages have idioms, but

English seems to have more than its fair share. This is the reason why idioms
cause difficulties in guessing meaning from context. Another example about
the idiom is that the learner may know the words goat and get, and wonder why
she does not understand the sentence “You get my goat!” She has a little
chance of guessing, out of the context it means, “You irritate me!”
In general, there is a wide range of literature review that mentions factors
causing difficulties in guessing meaning from context. However, there is no full
agreement on which theory is perfect. A perfect description must be practical,
feasible and must be carefully developed and based on the real situation.
Among the studies, I find the following ideas interesting and I really want to
observe whether these assumptions can be applied to the case of the third-year
English-majored students at Can Tho University. The suggested factors are
synthesized below:
2.5.1. Inattentive homonyms. Ming-yueh Shen (2002, P.13) proposes that
the main factor causing difficulties in guessing meaning from context is
inattentive homonyms.
Students gave a variety of wrong meanings to the homonym words with
multiple meanings. For example, the noun rest and the verb rest are clearly two
distinct entries in the mental lexicon; a context allows a reader to determine
which is intended. As shown in the table, five out of seven students guessed
that the word “stand” in “By the 1879s, there were stands for selling sausages
at New York’s Coney Island” meant, “put into an upright position”, without
paying attention to another meaning as noun “ a small outdoor shop”. Three out
of the seven students guessed that rest meant “freedom from something tiring”,
and apparently neglected its new meaning as “what is left” in the context.
Examples of learner’s Inattentive homonyms:
Incorrect guess
Inattentive

inattentive to

homonyms

clue

Number of
students

Percentage


stand (n)
(a small outdoor
shop)

put into an
upright position

rest (n)

freedom from

(what is left)

something tiring

heat (v)

high

(to make warm)

temperature

5/7

71%

3/7

45%

2/7

2.5.2. Lack of vocabulary knowledge. According to Laufer and Sim
(1985), one of the obstacles readers have is lack of knowledge of other words
in a context. Some learners ascribed the limitations to their lack of vocabulary
knowledge. Obviously, students with limited vocabulary are more likely to
encounter word problems; typically, they have greater difficulties in inferring
the meaning of words from context because they have more words to guess and
have less contextual information available for figuring out unknown words.
This problem is congruent with what researchers found in studying the
threshold of vocabulary and reading comprehension as well as vocabulary
knowledge.
To infer the meaning of any particular word encountered in context, learners
must know the meaning of the words around it.
Example: “By the end of the Pleistocene Age both the antitheses and the
heparins had become extinct in North America , where they had originated, as
fossil evidence clearly indicates. In Europe , they evolved into the larger and
stronger animal that is very similar to the horse, as we know it today”.

In the above example, it is very difficult for readers to guess the meaning of
the word “extinct” because there are many other new words around it like
antitheres, hipparion, evolved. So, the context clues in this situation are not
helpful.
2.5.3. Lack of suffixes knowledge. Craik (1995, p.14) claims that knowing
a word involves much more than knowing a definition. Besides information
about a word meaning, word knowledge is generally recognized as including a


number of other components such as the syntactic frames in which a word
occurs,

the

word’s

collocation

potential,

its

register

and

potential

morphological relationships (what prefixes and suffixes it occurs with). People
possess other kinds of knowledge about words as well, for example, the

frequency with which a word occurs in the language. Affixes play an important
role in guessing meaning of a new word when readers break it up into many
syllables to guess the meaning, so struggling readers who have poor knowledge
of the meaning of common affixes, easily encounter difficulties in guessing
process because the meaning of new words are often generated with affixes.
The following are some common affixes and their meanings
Prefixes
ab

Meaning
away from

Examples
absent

act, ap, at

to, toward, near

advance, attract

bi

two

bicycle

com, con

with, together combine, cooperate

de

from, reverse

defect, decompose

dis

not, opposite

disappear, disconnect

re

back, again

return, replay

Suffixes
al

referring to

optical

ble

likely to be

lovable, divisible

ence, ance,

act or state of

difference, acceptance, truancy

ancy
ful

full of, to

powerful, forgetful

ian

someone who

musician

2.5.4. Lack of prior knowledge. Dubin and Olshtain (1993) propose that
contextual guessing involves nonlinguistic prior knowledge. They claim that
successful word guessing involves substantial textual support and prior
knowledge such as commonsense knowledge, world or cultural knowledge, and
specialized domain knowledge. The prior knowledge might or might not
include background knowledge that the author assumes the readers will have.


Besides, as stated by Colley (1987, p.113), text is language which is written in

context. It has an intended message that may go beyond its linguistic
representation. In order to comprehend a text, the reader needs to use
information, which is explicit and implicit in the text. S/He needs to go beyond
the literal meaning of sentences in the text in order to get the intended message
of the writer and the likely intention of the writer in a particular context
Readers are capable of making these inferences due to the fact that they
have the appropriate background knowledge of the circumstance that may link
the two events. Appropriate background knowledge is also essential in reading
a text that contains information from a specialized knowledge domain. For
example, it is very unlikely that you can understand much of a text for
specialists in the domain of the chemistry if you yourself do not have sufficient
background knowledge in that domain. We need to have information about
appropriate context before reading a text in order to comprehend it and recall it
well.
Thus, it can be assumed that those l2 or foreign language readers who lack
sufficient prior knowledge will have considerable difficulty in contextual
guessing.
2.5.5. Context. Hunt and Alan (1996) claim the difficulty of inferring from
context increases when information in the immediate context is lacked, and
correct guessing is only possible in case that the context is highly constraint
(i.e. when redundant information is plentiful). Moreover, if the local contexts
remain vague, then reliance on the broader context is frequent
Example: “We are exposed to very little music or art.”
We can clarify the above sentence by adding more context such as in school
we’re taught reading, writing and mathematic; we are exposed to very little
music. This additional context helps students have a base on guessing what the
word means.
To sum up, researchers have different points of view about the factors
causing difficulties in guessing meaning from context. The studies that the
writer has presented indicate that the following are the factors causing

difficulties in guessing meaning from context: homonym, lacking of
vocabulary knowledge, prior knowledge, suffixes knowledge and insufficient
context. These theories provide English-majored students at Can Tho
University a clear explanation of the problems they have when doing
vocabulary test. It also helps them to have an insight into each factor in
guessing strategies. From this recognition, the learners may seek for additional
material related to this topic in which the researchers present solutions to their
obstacles. Moreover, their teachers could have a real understanding if their
students’ obstacles when doing their homework and then think of suitable
strategies for their students’ self-directed learning.
CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, I would like to introduce: (1) the definition of a case study,
(2) participants and (3) the research instruments

3.1. What Is a Case Study?
When developing a research project, researchers have to find the answers
to two crucial questions. The first is which method will be used and the second
is why it is chosen. The justification of the choice of the method lies with the
research question that the research project is looking for the answer. According
to Ranjit Khmar (1997) a case study method is an approach to studying a social
phenomenon through a thorough analysis of an individual case. The case may
be a person, group, episode, process, community, society or any other unit of
social life. All data relevant to the case are gathered and organized in terms of
the case. It provides an opportunity for the intensive analysis of many specific
details often overlooked by other methods. This approach rests on the
assumption that the case being studied is typical of cases of a certain type so
that, through intensive analysis, generalizations may be made. That will be

applicable to other cases of the same type.
There are six steps in a case study


Step 1: Determine and define the research questions
Step 2: Select the cases and determine data gathering and analysis techniques
Step 3: Prepare to collect the data
Step 4: Collect data in the field
Step 5: Evaluate and analyze the data
Step 6: Prepare the report
The writer follows the above six techniques for organizing and conducting the
research and finding out the answers to the research question raised in the
study.

3.2. Participants
Participants in my study are four classes of 60 (female and male) students
studying Bachelor of English course 30 at Can Tho University. Their ages
range from 21-23. The first language of all of these students is Vietnamese and
English is considered as their foreign language. Their language competence is
at advanced level. “Interactions” and “Mosaic” are the two textbooks used to
teach them. When I conduct the study, they have already studied five semesters
of reading. In other words, they have already finished 12 chapters in the
textbook “Interactions II” and several chapters in the textbook “Mosaic I”.
Students may recognize their progresses after approaching these books because
these reading books have been created to develop vocabulary skills and reading
comprehension skills. From the fact, I think that students in my study have
stable foundations of guessing meaning from context in reading.
3.3 Research Instruments
Questionnaire
Questionnaires are used as an instrument to collect data in my study. The

questionnaire consists of two main parts: the first one is to get the participants’
personal information and the other is to explore the factors causing problems in
guessing meaning from context. When mentioning the personal information,
the students are asked about their names, ages, and classes. The second is a list
of ten questions related to the topic of this research. The questionnaire is easy


to read and pleasant to the eyes so that the respondents can understand and
answer. The students have 5 minutes to think and read the questionnaire
carefully and then write down their answers by circling the letter A, B, C or D
or by giving their own opinions.
Test
After the students answer the questions in questionnaire, I will deliver them
a test. This exercise will be designed from TOEFL books such as “TOEFL
Reading And Vocabulary Workbook” (Elizabeth & Karen, 1992), “TOEFL
Preparation Guide” (Michael & Mary, 1995). … The reason why I chose this
kind of exercise in my study is that students often encounter many new words
when doing the TOEFL reading test which is assigned as homework by their
teachers. For them, the only way to understand the new word is to guess.
Therefore, I intended to see what difficulties the learners face in meaning
guessing of an unknown word when doing this reading assignment. From the
data collected, the writer will find out whether their performance in the test is
corresponded to their description in the questionnaire sheet. The allotted time
to finish the test is 15 minutes. A teacher teaching in the class along with the
writer will work as an invigilated officer to invigilate the test to make sure that
everything is done properly. After 20 minutes, I will come to each table in the
class to collect both the questionnaire and the test.
The evidence obtained from the test and the questionnaires will clarify the
research question: “What factors causing difficulties do students encounter in
guessing meaning of new vocabularies when doing reading exercises?”.

CHAPTER 4
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
After having justified the strategy of choosing and employing suitable
methods of study, the researcher will present the results of the


questionnaire and the test and provide analysis to the findings arising
from the data gathered to support the following points: lacking vocabulary
knowledge, prior knowledge, and affixes knowledge and insufficient
context.
Questionnaire and Test Analysis
Of all stages of carrying out the research, analyzing data is one of the most
important stages that illustrate the main point of the study with specific figures.
In this section, the questionnaire and the test will be analyzed together. The
purpose of the combination analysis is to help the readers compare both
findings at the same time and to show the relevance between the answers in the
questionnaire and their responses in the test. The test consists of 14 items
which were categorized into five groups included: group 1 (items 1, 2 and 3),
group 2 (items 4, 5 and 6), group 3 (items 7 and 8), group 4 (items 9 and 10)
and group 5 (items 11, 12, and 13). Each item in each group has four choices
A, B, C, and D. Each group was designed with different purposes. Group 1 is to
exam whether the students lack vocabulary knowledge when dealing with a
new word or not. Group 2 related to the homonym factor with the arguments on
whether the participants are confused in guessing the meaning of a word with
its homonym. Group 3 is about the problems with affixes. Group 4 is to
consider whether the students lack prior knowledge in guessing meaning
process and the final one, group 5, mentions the context factors causing
difficulty in meaning inferences with new words.

Questions 1, 2, 3( in the questionnaire)
Table 1:
Question 1

Students’ choices

Do you encounter many Always

Usually

Often

Sometimes

new

20

22

7

words

while

doing 11


reading exercises?

18%

33%

36.7%

12.3%

Chart 2:
Question 2 : What do you do to guess the meaning when encountering a
new word?
Table 3:
Question 3

Do

you

guessing
from

Students’ answers

think
meaning

context

difficult?

is

Yes

No

(43.3%) (23.3%)

No ideas
(30%)

Other
ideas
(3.4%)

I would like to know whether the participants encounter new words or
not, and in which ways the English students explore the meaning of an
unfamiliar word when they encounter it in a reading text. 12.3% said that they
sometimes encountered new words. However, the number of choices to “
often” was the highest one, 36.7%(22 students); 33%(20 students) chose
“usually”. The above responses indicated that most English learners faced new
words in a reading test. It is natural because none could know all of the words
of a language. English students at Can Tho University are not an exception.
Wherever they encounter a new word, most of them had the same ways in
dealing with unknown items, that was, guessing meaning from context. The
result was shown clearly in chart 2, 88.3 % of students guessed the meaning of
a word from the context. When looking at table 3, we can see that among 60
students, only 43.3% (26 students) answered “yes” to the question 3 which
meant guessing meaning from context was difficult; 14 students 23.3% said

“No”, and 30% “No ideas”. 3.4% (2 students) wrote down their own ideas.
They thought that whether guessing meaning of a new word was difficult or not


depended on the fields of the text. They explained that when they had stable
background knowledge of the domain they were reading, they could make a
correct guess of the meaning of a word and vice verse.
Question 4 (in the questionnaire)
Table 4.1:
Students’ choices
Question 4

rarely

sometimes

often

usually

always

meaning of the

0

1

6

20

33

other words around

(0%)

(1.7%)

(10%)

(33%)

(58.3%)

I. …know the

it

Table 4.2: Group 1(in the test)
Poor vocabulary knowledge
Guessing the meaning of the following
words:
Students’ incorrect answers
36
Item 1: “hardy”
(60%)
57
Item 2: “abating”

(95%)
51
Item 3: “rupture”
(85%)
We can figure out from table 4 that more than 58.3% of respondents
thought that they always know the meaning of the other words around a new
word. It meant that they rarely had problems in identifying the meaning of the
neighboring words and 33 % usually knew their meanings of the neighbouring


words. Maybe, these students had strong vocabulary knowledge. So, they did
not consider understanding vocabulary as a problem when doing reading
exercises. However, their performance in the test contradicted their awareness.
Among 60 objectives, 60% of them were not successful in guessing the
meaning of the word “hardy” in item 1, whereas 95 % of wrong answers to
item 2, and 85 % to item 3 were found. I am not very surprised at the result like
this. Students did not figure out the meaning of the phrase “acute hemorrhagic
conjunctivitis” which can help them infer the meaning of “abating”. Similarly,
the word “ distend” in item 3 meant “ to swell or make something swell” is a
new word to them. Most of them guess, “abating,” meant “ stop”. They guess
accidentally and ignore the clues in this sentence. Although students did not
likely know the meaning of the word “hostile” in item 1, they could infer from
the context clues such as “lichens, many habitat…” and choose “durable” as the
similar meaning of “hardy”. The percentage of successful guesses at item 1 was
higher than the others, which did not mean that students did not face problems
with the neighboring meaning of a new vocabulary. From the highest number
of wrong answers, we can conclude that 95% of the English-majored students
of course 30 at Can Tho University face difficulty in meaning guessing of an
unknown word when doing a reading test because of poor vocabulary. Poor
vocabulary is a factor that causes difficulties in students’ inferring process,

which is proved by the study of Laufer & Sim (1985)
Question 5(in the questionnaire)
Table 5.1:
Students’ answers

Question 5
rarely

sometimes

often

usually

always

38

15

6

1

0

(25%)

(10%)

(1.7%)

(0%)

You …
mistake the

meaning of a (63.3%)
new word