Learning vocabulary in context involves teaching new words through reading passages, rather than standalone lessons. Teachers can use assigned readings to introduce vocabulary and allow students to identify unfamiliar words. This method helps students learn to use contextual clues to understand unfamiliar words.
Learning vocabulary in context typically means that students learn new words and vocabulary through actual reading passages, rather than as standalone lessons. A teacher who uses context to teach vocabulary might choose vocabulary words for a class lesson that are found in an assignment that students are expected to read that evening. Teachers can also use context to allow students to highlight or identify words they are unfamiliar with and then use those words as the basis for a vocabulary lesson. Learning vocabulary in context can also allow students to practice context clue skills often helpful in identifying the meaning of unfamiliar words based on surrounding information.
Vocabulary in context typically refers to words that are in their “natural environment” rather than isolated on a page and without purpose. While vocabulary lessons that consist of lists of words for students to memorize can be helpful, they’re also not indicative of how people encounter new words. This is why it can be more helpful to allow students to approach vocabulary in context to recognize and understand the meaning of new words.
There are several ways a teacher can use vocabulary in context. In general, however, these methods typically go beyond simply providing a sentence or paragraph that includes the vocabulary word. Instead, most teachers use reading for another part of a class as the setting for students to encounter and understand new words.
A teacher, for example, might give students a list of vocabulary words and ask them to identify each word that night by following an assigned reading and writing down the sentence it is in. This ensures more active and critical reading by students, and also serves to reinforce the idea that vocabulary words are not simply an assignment, but are words used in writing. Teachers can also use vocabulary in context by allowing students to point to unfamiliar words in a piece of writing and then using those words as the basis for a vocabulary lesson.
Lessons that use vocabulary in context can also help students learn to use contextual clues to identify the meaning of unfamiliar words. These clues are methods readers can use to determine the meaning of a word using the language and other words found around it. Contextual clues are often used by adult readers and can help a student learn to read more critically and better prepare students for the realities of higher education and further reading outside the school setting.
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