An investigation into the importance of guessing word meaning in context and strategies to help english major freshmen at quang binh university better at reading skill cao nữ trinh

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPORTANCE OF GUESSING WORDMEANING IN CONTEXT AND STRATEGIES TO HELP ENGLISH-MAJOR
FRESHMEN AT QUANG BINH UNIVERSITY BETTER AT READING SKILL.
Ts. Nguyễn Đình Hùng

Cao Nữ Trinh
Lớp Đại học Ngôn ngữ Anh K54

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the study
Nowadays, English has been become the language of international communication
because it is widely used in many parts of the world. It is bringing people around the
world closer together. It is clear that the English language plays an important role to
develop in the fields of economics, politics, education, and many others. Especially, in
our country, there are more and more people interested in learning English.
Owing to the importance of English, students at Quang Binh University are trying to
learning English effectively. And under the guide of teachers, most of students found
out solutions to get better at learning English. However, many students still face
difficulties in learning English language.
Reading is one of the basic skills that everyone needs. It is useful tool for people of
many societies to get knowledge and information. According to writer observation
during doing Praktek Pengalaman (PPL) in SMA Kresten Kondosapata Makassar,
most of students are not understood what they have read. In fact that many first year
students English majored at Quang Binh University got difficulties in reading skill.
Some of them said that they only read the text to answer the question without know
what they read. Besides, a number of students have low motivation in reading.
Therefore, the students are not able to get good marks in reading subject.
Their problems are various such as lack of vocabulary, background knowledge,
grammar, etc. And they do not know how to apply some useful strategies when they
read. Most students who meet an unfamiliar word they cannot translate are first asking
what it means. If they do not find out the word’s meaning, they can not continue
reading and understanding the content of the text.

Contextual guessing is the most useful technique for student in attacking new words.
However, the ability in using that technique of first-year students at Quang Binh
University is not good. With the wish of aiming the student understand the importance
of contextual guessing technique in reading and find out some effective solutions to
get better at reading skill, I am doing research on a titled “An investigation into the
importance of guessing word-meaning in context and strategies to help English-major
freshmen at Quang Binh University better at reading skill.”
1.2. Aims of the research
(1) To find out perceptions of English-major freshmen at Quang Binh University
toward the importance of the guessing word meaning in context.
(2) To investigate the real situation of learning reading at Quang Binh University, the
difficulties that the English-major first year students at Quang Binh University meet in
reading.
(3) To draw out some possible solutions and suggestions to overcome the difficulties
and improve the results of reading skill.
1.3. Research questions
1. What are the students’ attitudes toward the importance of guessing word meaning in
context while learning reading?
2. What difficulties do the students meet when dealing with a reading lesson?
3. What are the most effective strategies for reading?
1.4. Scope of the study
Due to the limited time, the study focuses on investigation the freshmen’ attitudes
toward the guessing word meaning in context and the difficulties freshmen English
majors at the Quang Binh University encounter in the learning reading subject and
offers some strategies to help them better at their reading skill. Freshmen English
majored students at Quang Binh University were chosen as the main participants.

2. THE IMPORTANCE OF GUESSING WORD MEANING IN CONTEXT
AND DIFFICULTIES THAT ENGLISH-MAJOR FRESHMEN AT QUANG
BINH UNIVERSITY MEET IN LEARNING READING SKILL
2.1. Theoretical background of reading
2.1.1. Definitions of reading
Harison and Smith [23] defined reading as the act of responding with appropriate
meaning to print or written verbal symbols. It means that reading is the result of
interaction between the graphic symbols that represent language and the reader’s
language skill, and cognitive skills and knowledge of the words.
According to the Gould, Diyanni, Smith and Standford [18], reading is related to
interpretation, making sense of all events taking place around us for a process of
making potential meanings for readers.
2.1.2. The importance of reading
No one can deny that reading plays an important role in our life. It is important
because it is considered an essential skill both at school and afterwards. Reading also
gives us as readers a lot of opportunities to contact with different contexts in our daily
life.
2.1.3. Types of reading
According to the ways of reading.
 Aloud reading
According to Doff [11], “aloud reading involves looking at a text, understanding it and
also saying it. Its purpose is not just to understand a text but to convey the implication
to someone else.”
 Silent reading
According to Broughton, Brumfit [7], the nature of silent reading skills is far from
uniform.
According to the purposes of reading


Obviously, people read for many different purposes. There are different types of

reading for different situations.
 Skimming:
Skimming is a reading skill used to get an overview of the highlights of the material.
There have been many definitions of skimming.
 Intensive reading

It is an effective way to explore the text, to go deeply into the meaning and the
organization of the text.
According to Grellet [19] “Intensive reading means reading short text to extract
specific information. This is an accuracy activity involving reading for details.”
 Extensive reading
It is an activity involving global understanding just as Grellet [19] confirms:
“Extensive reading means reading longer text, usually or one’s own pleasure. This is a
fluency activity mainly involving general understanding.”
2.2. Theoretical background of reading strategies
2.2.1. Definition of reading strategies
Garner [15] defined reading strategies as an action or series of actions
employed to construct meaning. Barnett [2] used the term “reading strategy” to refer
to the mental operations involved when readers purposefully approach a text to make
sense of what they read.
2.2.2. Classification of reading strategies
Oxford [34] classified reading strategies into six types including cognitive, memory,
compensation, metacognitive, affective and social strategies. Another author also
classified reading strategies into six types, including recognizing text type;
recognizing text structure; predicting or summarizing the context of the text;
making guesses; using the context to determine the meaning of unknown words and
analyzing the word form of unknown words (Pattersen and Van Pattersen [35]).
2.3.

Theoretical background of guessing word meaning in context

2.3.1 Definitions of context
Context (language context) means “textual or discoursal place in which a particular
word or structure can be found” (GU [21]). Context can be as short as a sentence or
as long as several paragraphs, and it will usually contain unfamiliar word. Context
refers to the meaning of a new word.
Bialystok (1983) proposes that context exits in relation and proportion to the reader’s
implicit knowledge, other knowledge and context.
2.3.2 Definitions of guessing word meaning in context
According to Oxford [34] guessing is a compensation strategy which allows learners to
use the new language for either comprehension or production despite limitations in
knowledge.
Nassaji [32] defines guessing from context technique as any cognitive or
metacognitive activity that the learner turned to for help while trying to derive the
meaning of the unknown word from context.
2.2. Methodology
2.2.1. Participants
The participants in this research were 60 first- year students, including 38 students
from the class University of English Language K57 and 22 students from the class
College of English Language K57 at Quang Binh University.
2.2.2. Data collection method.
In oder to seek the answer to the research questions mentioned above, the instruments
used to get data are questionnaire and interview.
Questionnaire
The questionnaire delivered to 60 freshmen of the class University of English
Language K57 and College of English Language K57 consist of 10 questions with
both multiple choice and open-ended ones.
Interview
There are 15 students who were chosen randomly from the class University of English

Language K57 and the class College of English Language K57 at Quang Binh


University. To get information from this group of participants, there are 5 open-ended
questions. All of them are written in English.
2.2.3. Data analysis methods
Data analyses were based on two approaches which are quantitative and qualitative
approaches.
2.3. Students’ perceptions towards guessing word meaning in context
2.3.1. Students’ response on the importance of guessing word meaning in context
Students' awareness of the importance of guessing word meaning in context is
expressed on the chart below.
Figure 1: Students’ response toward the importance of guessing word meaning
in context.

Figure 2: Students’ opinions about the difficulty of guessing word meaning in
context.


Figure 3: The use of guessing word meaning in context technique to attack new
words while reading.

Figure 4: The effectiveness of using guessing word meaning technique to deal
with new words while reading.

2.4 Difficulties in learning reading skill that the students encounter
2.4.1 Difficulties in fully understanding the reading passage
Table 1: Reasons that student can not complete reading the text

Reasons

Percentage

1. The text is too long

45%

2. The tasks are difficult

57.67%

3. There are many unknown words

95%

4. There are too many new grammatical structures

38%

5. The topic and content are unfamiliar

27.5%

6. Others

0%

2.4.2 Difficulties in students’ reading strategies
The importance of reading strategies is becoming increasingly recognized. However,

students cannot apply them correct and effective. The ways students read the text are
expressed in table 2.
Table 2: Students’ ways to read the text
Items

Percentage

1. Word-by-word reading

75%

2. Skimming

15%

3. Scanning

21.67%

4. Reading aloud

35%

5. Slient reading

33%

6. Translating the text into Vietnamese

92%

7. Reading the topic sentences

8%

8. Other

0%

2.4.3 . Factors influence the progress of reading in language learning.
Figure 5: Factors influence to progress of reading

2.5. Suggestions for the improvement of students’ reading skill
Table 3: Solutions to improve reading skill
Items

Percentage

Students should spend more time reading at home

60%

Students should enrich their vocabulary

85%

Students should use more strategies in reading

32%

Students should spend more time on watching film, video

46%

with English subtitle.
Others

10%


3. CONCLUSION
3.1. Conclusion
The learning of reading has become more and more important at university. English
majored students are, therefore, trying their best to find more useful strategies to
develop their reading skill. The investigation into the students’ attitudes toward
guessing word meaning in context helps students realize the importance and
effectiveness of contextual guessing word meaning to improve their ability in use it in
reading.
Besides, this study is conducted to find difficulties that the English - major freshmen at
Quang Binh University encounter helps them have a better insight of what obstacles in
reality and what strategies should be made to improve their reading skill. The
following are the main findings of the study.
First, most of the students are aware of the importance of guessing word meaning in
context in reading.
Second, from the questionnaire data, the researchers have found the difficulties that the
English majored students at Quang Binh University encounter. One of the most
difficulties that students encounter is can not fulfill the text. Vocabulary is considered
the main factor that makes students hard to understand the idea of the text. And the
new grammatical structures, the unfamiliar topic and content of the text are also the

problems of students in reading.
Another, lacking of reading strategies is a difficulty that most students encounter.
Therefore, some useful strategies are suggested in this study.
Furthermore, researchers also found out some factors influence the reading’ progress.
From the results, motivation is the most factor affect to students in reading.
In conclusion, from what have been presented, the study is hoped to helpful for first
year English-majored students of the Department of Foreign Languages at Quang Binh
University.


5.2. Implications

Through the investigation, the researchers show the importance of guessing word
meaning in context and a number of problems, suggestions which may help contribute
to the promotion of students’ reading learning results.
First, students need to be aware of the importance of guessing word meaning in
context. Students can overcome new vocabulary by using this strategy.
In addition, students could improve their vocabulary knowledge by self-learning.
Reading books from various reference sources in the library are a useful way for
students to enlarge their knowledge and develop reading skills. By doing so, they may
consider reading to be more interesting during the reading process.
Next, students should use more strategies to be better at reading skills. Students need
to know the purpose of reading to apply the suitable strategies. For example, if
students want to get main idea, they will apply the skimming strategies.
Last but not least, they should spend more time practicing reading skills at home with
high frequency by reading magazine, novels, watch film with English subtitle, etc...
5.3. Limitations of the study and recommendations for further study
In spite of the significant findings that supported the hypothesis of the positive effect
of the strategy of guessing meaning from context on students' word-attack skill and
reading strategies, there existed some limitations to the study.

Due to the shortage of time and the lack of practical experience, the investigation is
not good at all. As a preliminary investigation into the guessing meaning from context
and useful reading strategies, the sample size was limited only to 60 first-year students
at Quang Binh University. Even though it is true that the study has provided valid data,
should the sample size be bigger, the generalizability of the findings would be higher.
Based on the limitation of the study as discussed above, a longitudinal study over a
longer period of time should be conducted to have more fruitful result. Furthermore,
further research should investigate the impact of reading strategies on gender as
well as on the ability apply reading strategies in practical.


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