Guessing the Meanings of Words from Context: Why and How

Abstract

Vocabulary is an indispensable part of a language. It is vitally needed to define the meanings of words used in context for comprehension, clarity of expression, and purpose. Teaching English vocabulary is an important field in language teaching. It is that one ingredient that beautifies the language and makes English learning fun in many amazing ways. Moreover, in order for our students to acquire reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills we need to facilitate students learning by incorporating well-developed techniques to make them learn fast and give them a strong grip on their vocabulary knowledge.     Vocabulary learning is essential to the development of language skills. There is a considerable emphasis on the importance of vocabulary learning and teaching. One of the most effective ways of vocabulary learning is guessing the meanings of words from context.      The purpose of this study is to show why guessing the meaning of unknown words from context clues is a very important learning strategy and how it is done efficiently.