Syntactic Context Definition
Words are a complex element in life to define, but the best way to explain it is “words are labels for what we know” (Cleary and Linn, 577). As individuals learn words, they are not only growing their vocabulary, but also extending their overall knowledge at the same time. What is the most efficient way for one to extend his or her vocabulary and fully understand the meaning of different words? People tend to believe that knowing the definition is all that an individual needs to know about a word. There is so much more than just knowing the definition in order for someone to incorporate a word into his or her everyday communication. Teachers tend to make the mistake in just having their students memorize a definition of a word instead of having them understand the word in its context. According to the
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essays: “Vocabulary Teaching: Active Involvement in Contexts” by James E. Coomber and Howard D. Peet and “Spoken Words: Quality Exposure to Vocabulary Concepts” by Steven Grubaugh, knowing the definition is significant, but there are other techniques that should be included when teaching vocabulary: have the students use context clues to find the definition; include listening, reading, writing, and speaking to a student’s word study; get the students involved in wide reading; and clarify word concepts through experience stories.
The other words in a sentence assist a reader coming across an unknown word. According to James E. Coomber and Howard D. Peet “it has been said that a word ‘is known by the company it keeps’” (Cleary and Linn, 580). This passage suggests that a single word can have various meanings and the only way to truly understand it is by the surrounding words within the sentence; therefore, a reader can identify an unknown word by understanding the context it is being used in. “Unless the reading material is very difficult, context should be the first choice even for fourth graders” (580) while reading, and a student comes across an unknown word, the information received from the text is what the student should use to understand the word. Encouraging students to make an effort to find the meaning of a word in the readings, instead of just giving them the definition, is what teachers need to do. The student does not profit from getting the definition of the unknown word spoon fed to him. Yes, the student would know the definition; however, that does not mean they understand the context of the word. The readings state “rather than automatically defining words for students, we should encourage risk taking so students learn to determine word meanings on their own” (Cleary and Linn, 581). This is vital because the students will benefit from this in the future and their comprehension skills will improve drastically, as opposed to just being told the meaning of every word they did not know.
There are two different types of contextual clues that a reader can use in order to understand an unknown word: syntactic and semantic.
Syntactic context helps an individual with figuring out the form and function of an unknown word. Identifying whether the word is a noun, verb, or another part of speech is determined by where the word is located. In addition to syntactic context, semantic context is another meaningful type of context clue and this “focuses on the various meanings interrelated in context” (580). In semantic context the other words throughout the sentence are used to help the reader comprehend the word that he or she is did not know. Syntactic and semantic contextual clues seem to go hand in hand because if a student understands what part of speech a word is, along with using the other words within the sentence, the meaning of the word will become much easier to pinpoint. Sentences at times are contradictory, so just knowing the meaning of the word is not compensating the student when it comes to understanding the meaning of the sentence as a whole. It is necessary for the students to understand the semantic context affiliated with the unknown
word.
It is critical for teachers to remember that when it comes to vocabulary all of their students have four vocabularies: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. There is a good possibility that a student may recognize or understand a word when he or she reads it, but not that student may not know how to use the word when speaking or writing. The teacher should ensure that the student understands the word completely so that the student can incorporate the word into his or her lexicon and everyday communication. After a teacher gives his or her students a definition of a word, the teacher should then have an activity that requires the students to use all four of the vocabularies in order to get the full connotation of the word. There are many different ways to of reviewing and “one of the best reviews of a word is using that word in writing or speaking” (Cleary and Linn, 582). Teachers need to influence their students to take risks and use the words that they have learned in their writing because using the word will help ensure that their knowledge of the word is not one-dimensional. Students are using newly learned vocabulary words in their writing and speaking gives the student more opportunities to gain experience with the word. The experiences are very essential to assisting a student in gaining the complete meaning of a word. Also, encountering words in a variety of contexts will aid a reader in learning unfamiliar words. Those contexts should consist of speaking, reading, writing, and listening.
Teachers getting their students involved in wide reading instead of just reading one specific genre can help expand an individual's lexicon and his or her overall knowledge. Having a student broaden the types of books he or she reads will open them up to different types of experiences with words; the experiences with new words will cause the student’s knowledge to grow and lexicons to expand. Wide reading also helps build a student's comprehension skills; improved comprehension skills will benefit the student in every subject. Teachers need to give some guidance during the reading because “reading a wide variety of material without direct vocabulary instruction is not likely to lead to optimal vocabulary development” (Cleary and Linn, 579). When a student comes across a word he or she does not know during his or her readings, he or she is likely to pay no attention to the word and skip it; skipping the word and not getting the exposure to the word meaning will make it hard for the student to retain the word. Learning words through context is essential and beneficial, but wide reading without the teaching of specific word structures generally does not lead to rapid success. Wide reading is a great way for individuals not only to gain words to put into their lexicons but also improve their comprehension skills. Improvement of comprehension will also go hand-in-hand with advancing one’s knowledge.
Once a student understands the concept of a word, it is important to clarify it through experiences and “the experiences must be real and put into anecdote or story form and must illustrate the concept of the word” (Cleary and Linn, 591). The memorization of the word and the concept of the word will allow the student to go back to the experience when he or she needs to define the word. If the student can relate the basic meaning of a new word to an experience, he or she will demonstrate an understanding of the word. Students will start with the general idea of what a word means and then as time goes on the student will gain more information about the word. The student will start to understand the word more in-depth and eventually start to make connections between the current word to other words that relate to it. For example, a child may learn what a ball is and then get involved in a sport that incorporates a ball. This experience in the sport allows the child to connect more concepts to the ball such as a bat in baseball, a hoop in basketball, a racquet in tennis, or a golf club in golf. Teachers need to create lessons where the students will gradually gain experience on the topic at hand to benefit the students’ knowledge on the topic. These types of lessons will also prevent from cramming too much information in at once and allows the students a chance to get a full grasp of the topic in the end.
Teaching vocabulary is more than just word definitions; teachers should look at it as expanding the knowledge of their students. Helping their students improve their lexicons will also help their students improve their overall performance in all subjects. In every assignment a student will encounter throughout school, having comprehension skills and an advanced vocabulary will help he or she succeed on the assignment. It is ideal for the students not only to understand the definition but also apply it in their everyday communication. Vocabulary is a tricky topic to teach because so much goes into it. Students need to understand what the word means, the different ways the word is used, and how the context around it can affect the meaning. Teachers need to enhance their students’ vocabulary and overall knowledge and there is a variety of ways to do so: have the students study the surrounding words within the sentence to derive the meaning of the unknown word; integrate lessons that require the students to use their writing, speaking, hearing, and reading vocabularies; influence the students to open up to different styles of reading, which will also increase their knowledge on various topics; and use experiences to help identify what an object or word is.
essays: “Vocabulary Teaching: Active Involvement in Contexts” by James E. Coomber and Howard D. Peet and “Spoken Words: Quality Exposure to Vocabulary Concepts” by Steven Grubaugh, knowing the definition is significant, but there are other techniques that should be included when teaching vocabulary: have the students use context clues to find the definition; include listening, reading, writing, and speaking to a student’s word study; get the students involved in wide reading; and clarify word concepts through experience stories.
The other words in a sentence assist a reader coming across an unknown word. According to James E. Coomber and Howard D. Peet “it has been said that a word ‘is known by the company it keeps’” (Cleary and Linn, 580). This passage suggests that a single word can have various meanings and the only way to truly understand it is by the surrounding words within the sentence; therefore, a reader can identify an unknown word by understanding the context it is being used in. “Unless the reading material is very difficult, context should be the first choice even for fourth graders” (580) while reading, and a student comes across an unknown word, the information received from the text is what the student should use to understand the word. Encouraging students to make an effort to find the meaning of a word in the readings, instead of just giving them the definition, is what teachers need to do. The student does not profit from getting the definition of the unknown word spoon fed to him. Yes, the student would know the definition; however, that does not mean they understand the context of the word. The readings state “rather than automatically defining words for students, we should encourage risk taking so students learn to determine word meanings on their own” (Cleary and Linn, 581). This is vital because the students will benefit from this in the future and their comprehension skills will improve drastically, as opposed to just being told the meaning of every word they did not know.
There are two different types of contextual clues that a reader can use in order to understand an unknown word: syntactic and semantic.
Syntactic context helps an individual with figuring out the form and function of an unknown word. Identifying whether the word is a noun, verb, or another part of speech is determined by where the word is located. In addition to syntactic context, semantic context is another meaningful type of context clue and this “focuses on the various meanings interrelated in context” (580). In semantic context the other words throughout the sentence are used to help the reader comprehend the word that he or she is did not know. Syntactic and semantic contextual clues seem to go hand in hand because if a student understands what part of speech a word is, along with using the other words within the sentence, the meaning of the word will become much easier to pinpoint. Sentences at times are contradictory, so just knowing the meaning of the word is not compensating the student when it comes to understanding the meaning of the sentence as a whole. It is necessary for the students to understand the semantic context affiliated with the unknown
word.
It is critical for teachers to remember that when it comes to vocabulary all of their students have four vocabularies: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. There is a good possibility that a student may recognize or understand a word when he or she reads it, but not that student may not know how to use the word when speaking or writing. The teacher should ensure that the student understands the word completely so that the student can incorporate the word into his or her lexicon and everyday communication. After a teacher gives his or her students a definition of a word, the teacher should then have an activity that requires the students to use all four of the vocabularies in order to get the full connotation of the word. There are many different ways to of reviewing and “one of the best reviews of a word is using that word in writing or speaking” (Cleary and Linn, 582). Teachers need to influence their students to take risks and use the words that they have learned in their writing because using the word will help ensure that their knowledge of the word is not one-dimensional. Students are using newly learned vocabulary words in their writing and speaking gives the student more opportunities to gain experience with the word. The experiences are very essential to assisting a student in gaining the complete meaning of a word. Also, encountering words in a variety of contexts will aid a reader in learning unfamiliar words. Those contexts should consist of speaking, reading, writing, and listening.
Teachers getting their students involved in wide reading instead of just reading one specific genre can help expand an individual's lexicon and his or her overall knowledge. Having a student broaden the types of books he or she reads will open them up to different types of experiences with words; the experiences with new words will cause the student’s knowledge to grow and lexicons to expand. Wide reading also helps build a student's comprehension skills; improved comprehension skills will benefit the student in every subject. Teachers need to give some guidance during the reading because “reading a wide variety of material without direct vocabulary instruction is not likely to lead to optimal vocabulary development” (Cleary and Linn, 579). When a student comes across a word he or she does not know during his or her readings, he or she is likely to pay no attention to the word and skip it; skipping the word and not getting the exposure to the word meaning will make it hard for the student to retain the word. Learning words through context is essential and beneficial, but wide reading without the teaching of specific word structures generally does not lead to rapid success. Wide reading is a great way for individuals not only to gain words to put into their lexicons but also improve their comprehension skills. Improvement of comprehension will also go hand-in-hand with advancing one’s knowledge.
Once a student understands the concept of a word, it is important to clarify it through experiences and “the experiences must be real and put into anecdote or story form and must illustrate the concept of the word” (Cleary and Linn, 591). The memorization of the word and the concept of the word will allow the student to go back to the experience when he or she needs to define the word. If the student can relate the basic meaning of a new word to an experience, he or she will demonstrate an understanding of the word. Students will start with the general idea of what a word means and then as time goes on the student will gain more information about the word. The student will start to understand the word more in-depth and eventually start to make connections between the current word to other words that relate to it. For example, a child may learn what a ball is and then get involved in a sport that incorporates a ball. This experience in the sport allows the child to connect more concepts to the ball such as a bat in baseball, a hoop in basketball, a racquet in tennis, or a golf club in golf. Teachers need to create lessons where the students will gradually gain experience on the topic at hand to benefit the students’ knowledge on the topic. These types of lessons will also prevent from cramming too much information in at once and allows the students a chance to get a full grasp of the topic in the end.
Teaching vocabulary is more than just word definitions; teachers should look at it as expanding the knowledge of their students. Helping their students improve their lexicons will also help their students improve their overall performance in all subjects. In every assignment a student will encounter throughout school, having comprehension skills and an advanced vocabulary will help he or she succeed on the assignment. It is ideal for the students not only to understand the definition but also apply it in their everyday communication. Vocabulary is a tricky topic to teach because so much goes into it. Students need to understand what the word means, the different ways the word is used, and how the context around it can affect the meaning. Teachers need to enhance their students’ vocabulary and overall knowledge and there is a variety of ways to do so: have the students study the surrounding words within the sentence to derive the meaning of the unknown word; integrate lessons that require the students to use their writing, speaking, hearing, and reading vocabularies; influence the students to open up to different styles of reading, which will also increase their knowledge on various topics; and use experiences to help identify what an object or word is.