Rationale and Research | context-clues

I decided to focus my action research on reading comprehension due to my students' low scores on the Scholastic Reading Inventory test we take every 6 weeks as well as students' feelings and confidence toward reading.

After the first semester of the school year, my students were still not increasing their SRI scores enough to be proficient at the end of the year.

The SRI scores showed:

14 out of 22 students increased their scores, but only by a few points
4 out of 22 students had lowered their SRI scores
77.3% of my students were not at a proficient score on the SRI for the end of the year in third grade
36.4% of my students were below second grade proficiency

The SRI is a very challenging vocabulary test and I realized many of my students were struggling with new vocabulry acquisition. My students would raise their hands and ask me what certain words meant on a daily basis. This showed me that the majority of my students did not know any strategies to use to help them discover the meaning of unknown words.

First Step: Find research articles that discussed vocabulary strategies to improve reading comprehension in elementary students.

By the time students reach third grade, they are expected to be able to use different strategies to determine the meaning of unknown words while they are reading independently. One of the strongest and most effective strategies is Context Clues. Research shows using context clues is effective in increasing vocabulary knowledge and improving reading comprehension (Nash & Snowling, 2005). Context clues are words and phrases surrounding an unknown word that give the reader clues or hints to what the unknown word means. According to Gooden, Carereker, Thornhill & Joshi (2007), vocabulary acquisition has been found to be a high predictor of reading comprehension. If students are behind in vocabulary, they are more likely to be behind in reading comprehension. It is critical for students' vocabulary knowledge to be at or even beyond the grade level they are in order to increase the depth and richness of their reading experiences. The size of an individual's vocabulary is a powerful predictor of how well that person comprehends (Greenwood & Flanigan, 2007).

Using Context Clues can be extremely beneficial for students to use for vocabulary acquisition, as long as the text level is appropriate to the students' needs. If students are reading a text that is at a frustrational level, context clues become less of a help because students are not able to understand the majority of the text instead of a smaller number of specific vocabulary words. Also, explicit modeling and guided instruction is involved with teaching students how to use context clues. Students need to understand they must often search beyond the sentence with the targeted word in order to fully ascertain meaning (Greenwood & Flanigan, 2007). Looking before and beyond the specific word they are trying to figure out the meaning for is a difficult concept for students to grasp.

Although using context clues is not the only strategy that can be used while reading to determine the meaning of unknown words, it is highly effective and easy to use for younger elementary students. Guessing from context is still recommended as the major way of developing vocabulary knowledge (Cheong-Sook Chin, 2002). The connection between vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension is evident with all students. As students become more comfortable, competent ,and aware of strategies for understanding new words, reading comprehension improves (Vaughn & Edmonds, 2008).

I implemented Context Clues strategies in my classroom as my action research because of the amount of research stating its positive effect on reading comprehension.

Bibliography

Boulware-Gooden, R., Carreker, S., Thornhill, A., & Joshi, R. (2007). Instruction of metacognitive strategies enhances reading comprehension and vocabulary achievement of third-grade students. The Reading Teacher, 70-77.

Chin, C. (2002). A comparison of three learning strategies for korean EFL learners' vocabulary comprehension. Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 6(2), 139-139.

Edmonds, M., Vaughn, S., Wexler, J., Reutebuch, C., Cable, A., Tackett, K., & Schnakenberg, J. (2008). A synthesis of reading interventions and effects on reading comprehension outcomes for older struggling readers. Review of Educational Research, 262-300.

Greenwood, S., & Flanigan, K. (2007). Overlapping vocabulary and comprehension: Context clues compliment semantic gradiants. The Reading Teacher, 61(3), 249-254.

Kanatlar, M., & Peker, B. (2009). Guessing words in context strategies used by beginning and upper intermediate level EFL students. The International Journal of Learning, 16(5).

Nash, H., & Snowling, M. (2005). Teaching new words to children with poor existing vocabulary knowledge: A controlled evaluation of the definition and context methods. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 335-354.

Nelson, D. (2008). A context-based strategy for teaching vocabualry. English Journal, 97(4).