Helping Your Child with Vocabulary Acquisition
A mature reader is able to use context clues as a strategy to help understand unknown vocabulary words. You can encourage your student to see and recognize clues that will help them to understand the nuances of words better. There are four main types of clues that authors use.
The first is to give the reader the definition or a synonym of the word. An example is: A hydrophyte is a plant which grows well in very wet places. When you come across this type of word, simply ask your child, "What does the sentence say a hydrophyte is?" You can point out that if they see words such as "refers to, is defined as, is or means," then the definition is sure to follow. Sometimes the vocabulary word or its definition is in italics. Sometimes the definition is set off by commas, dashes or parentheses.
The second type of clue authors use is to give us examples or illustrations to make the word's meaning clearer. An example is: The boy was very responsible. He always tidied up his room before he left for school. He did his homework neatly and on time and he remembered to feed and groom his dog. By studying the examples of the responsible boy, the reader can begin to understand what responsible means.
The third type of clue authors use is contrast. This is when the word's opposite appears in the sentence. An example is: Tommy is very rambunctious but his brother is quiet and orderly. Some word clues that help signal a contrast are "however, on the other hand, in contrast, but, yet, different and unlike."
The fourth type of clue authors use is inference. To use this type of clue effectively, you must apply your background knowledge to information in the text. An example is: My teenage daughter was being flippant when I asked her why she was late coming home last night. She said that she had gotten run over by a train and it was none of my business anyway. Using your background knowledge of how teenagers can behave, along with the words that the teenager said, and you can begin to understand the meaning of flippant. Make sure to look at the sentences around the vocabulary word to get as many context clues as possible.
