The Effects of contextual inference strategy on vocabulary learning and reading comprehension in a junior high school in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Chen, Yi Chieh, 陳奕潔
• Other Authors: Lin, Chi Yee
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/67625181131961995127

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 英語教學碩士在職專班 === 97 === The present study aims to explore the effectiveness of contextual inference strategy (CIS) on vocabulary learning and reading comprehension of junior high school students in Taiwan. Two third- grade junior high school classes were selected as one experimental group and one control group. The research methods involved word-guessing pre- and post-test, vocabulary pre- and post-test, reading comprehension pre- and post-test, and questionnaires. The data analyses were descriptive statistics, Paired Sample T-test, and Independent Sample T-test. Based on the results of this study, major findings are summarized as follows. First, the CIS instruction led to greater gains in learners’ vocabulary knowledge than traditional instruction did. Second, CIS instruction had a significant effect on the experimental group’s word guessing abilities. Third, the participants performed better in the questions of synonym and definition clues while they were not good at questions of explanation clues. As for their use of contextual clues, the correctness rate of mood or tone clue ranks the highest while the explanation clue the lowest. Fourth, the two groups’ scores of the post-reading comprehension tests showed significant difference, indicating participants who were instructed with CIS performed better in the reading comprehension than those who didn’t. Fifth, according to the response questionnaire, most students considered CIS instruction helpful and gave positive responses to this training activity. The aforementioned findings in this study suggested that junior high school teachers could adopt CIS training to enhance students’ vocabulary learning and word-guessing abilities, and to reinforce their reading comprehension and positive attitudes toward English learning. Also, to help students perform better in vocabulary learning, teachers could implement focused instruction, such as redundant presentation and exercises.