Lecture 6 :
- Guessing Meanings from Context طو١ّٓ ِعٕٟ حٌىٍّش ِـٓ هلاي ح١ٌٔــخق
What do you usually do when you come to a word you do not know while reading?
Do you .....................?
a) ask your teacher? b) ask a friend?
c) look it up in the dictionary? d) try to guess what it means?
Advantages of guessing
- It is fast because you don‘t have to interrupt your reading.
- It helps your comprehension because you stay focused on the sense of what you are reading.
- It helps you remember words within their contexts.
- It allows you to enjoy your reading more because you don‘t have to stop often.
When you try to guess the meaning of an unknown word, you use the text surrounding the
word -the context السٌاق - to provide you with clues مفتاح الحل. Sometimes you can guess the
meaning of a word from other words within the sentence but sometimes you may need to read
several sentences in order to find the clues.
TIPS! How to guess meaning from context? - Determine the part of speech. - Look at the words that are used with it.
- Think about the meaning of the sentence.
Take a look at this example:
- It had been raining hard through the night so the ground was saturated.
- saturated = completely wet
Now, guess the meaning of the underlined words.
1 - Then there was a downpour as I was walking to the office so I was very wet when I arrived.
2 - The richest man in town was losing his hearing and he offered a large reward to anyone who
could find a remedy for his condition.
3 - After studying for twelve hours straight, Rob was growing weary.
4 - Stop that clamor and shut your mouths. Don't you know that people are trying to sleep in
here?"
5 - Huda thought that it was a great injustice that girls can't have the same rights as boys.
6 - Nader went to the museum every Saturday because he was so fascinated by art.
7 - Even though John had a good job and a nice family, he yearned for more.
8 - When the police officers arrested the thief, they put handcuffs on his hands.
9 - Since it was a school day, Sara thought it was peculiar that she saw no children on the street
during her drive to work.
10 - While others eat meat, rice, and green salad for breakfast, Ali was content with a piece of
toast and a glass of orange juice.