Context clue types and their prevalence in texts for Danish 3rd and 4th graders

Abstract

Research suggests that readers learn about word meanings from the various contexts of words in texts. Therefore, context clue instruction is often recommended as a way of boosting students’ word learning skills. Ideally, such instruction should focus on context clue types that are common in authentic texts. We examined the prevalence of context clue types in authentic texts for Danish 3^rd and 4^th graders, focusing on contexts surrounding so-called Tier 2 words. A classification system with eight specific clue types was developed with inspiration from prior research, and the contexts of a sample of 150 words were analysed. We found that clues to target word meanings were present in the majority (63 pct.) of contexts. Among these helpful contexts, the most frequent clue types were Example and Cause and effect. We discuss how word type and text type may have influenced the results, and the implications for instruction are highlighted.

Keywords:

• Context clues
• vocabulary instruction
• inferencing
• word learning
• reading comprehension

Acknowledgement

The research reported in this paper was supported by a grant from The A.P. Møller Foundation (A.P. Møller og Hustru Chastine Mc-Kinney Møllers Fond til almene Formaal).

Some of the results have previously been reported in a conference paper (Daugaard, Nielsen, and Juul 2017).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).