What Do You Do When Your Reading and Come Acriss a Word You Dont Know

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Whenever you read extended texts in English, y'all will come beyond words which y'all do not know. Fifty-fifty native speakers volition not know all the words when they are reading. Your instinct is probably to look up the unfamiliar words in a dictionary. If yous practise this for each word, however, it will take you a cracking deal of time, and you may never accomplish the stop of the text. You therefore need to develop strategies for dealing with unknown words. On this folio, you can read about:

• how to deal with unknown words;
• using context to guess significant;
• using prefixes, suffixes, and words roots.

There are also some activities to help you do this area of EAP.

How to deal with unknown words

There are two questions to enquire yourself whenever you lot meet an unfamiliar word. The first question is: 'Do I demand to know the meaning of the give-and-take?' If non, you can keep reading and ignore the word. In lodge to answer this question, you lot need to brand sure y'all take a clear purpose in your reading. The second question yous need to enquire is: 'Is an approximate pregnant plenty?' If not, yous demand to wait the discussion upwards in a lexicon.

If the answer to both questions to a higher place is 'yes', it means y'all tin can judge what the word means and then keep reading. Apply the following to help you guess an estimate significant:

• examine the immediate context of the word (i.e. the sentence in which information technology appears, and words which come before and after); pay particular attention to linking words;
• examine the wider context of the word (i.e. other sentences in the paragraph);
• wait at the construction of the word (i.e. prefix, suffix, root).

The arroyo to unfamiliar words is summarised in the diagram below.

Do I need to know the meaning of the discussion?		Continue reading
Is an judge significant enough?		Use a dictionary
Use the following to assistance you gauge the meaning: Immediate context (other words in the sentences) Wider context (other sentences in the paragraph) Prefix, suffix, root

Using context

When you approximate the meaning of a give-and-take from context, you lot demand to consider first the immediate context, i.east. the other words in the sentence. If this is non enough, you lot demand to use the wider context, i.east. sentences which come before and after the one which contains the give-and-take you are guessing.

Immediate context

Consider the following sentence:

Although the company's income from sales was college than expected, its high costs in the form of salaries and other overheads put information technology in a disadvantageous position.

Imagine the word yous want to guess in this sentence is 'disadvantageous' (it doesn't matter if you already know this give-and-take - this is just an case). The immediate context of the word tells you the following:

• it is probably an describing word, considering it comes before a noun ('position')
• it is probably negative, because information technology relates to 'high costs', which are not usually good for a company
• it is probably negative, because the sentence begins with 'although', a dissimilarity marking, so the idea in the second clause contrasts with the first clause, which is positive ('high income' is good for a visitor)

A good guess for the give-and-take at this indicate would be 'bad'. This is probably shut enough for you to empathize the main thought, and y'all would be able to keep reading.

Wider context

Now consider the following paragraph:

Although the company's income from sales was higher than expected, its high costs in the form of salaries and other overheads put information technology in a disadvantageous position. This was one of the primary reasons why the visitor folded. This put all ii hundred of its employees out of work.

Imagine the discussion yous want to estimate this time is 'folded' (this is a common discussion, but it has a special significant in this sentence). The immediate context of the word does not tell yous much: it is conspicuously a verb, but it is difficult to determine more than than this using only the sentence it occurs in. To guess the meaning, yous need to use the wider context, i.due east. the sentences which come before and after. Using these, yous can tell the following:

• it is probably negative, because it is the effect of the visitor's 'disadvantageous (bad) position'
• it is something which can happen to companies
• it resulted in all of the company'south employees beingness 'out of piece of work'

From this, you tin estimate that the word means something like 'stopped' or 'stopped doing business organisation' (because no one works there any more). In fact, 'to fold' in this context means '(of a company etc.) to close considering it is not successful'.

Using prefix, suffix, root

Once again consider the following sentence:

Although the company's income from sales was higher than expected, its high costs in the form of salaries and other overheads put information technology in a disadvantageous position.

Imagine (again) that the word you want to judge in this sentence is 'disadvantageous'. This give-and-take can exist broken downwards into iii components: dis-, which is the prefix; advantage, which is the root; and -ous, which is the suffix. You can get the following data past studying the word in this way:

• it is probably an adjective, because information technology ends in -ous, which is a mutual suffix for adjectives
• it is probably negative, because it begins with a negative prefix dis-
• its meaning is probably opposite to the root of the word, reward

Equally before, a good gauge for the give-and-take at this point would be 'bad'. Again, this would be shut enough to allow you to empathize the primary idea and keep reading.

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Source: https://www.eapfoundation.com/reading/skills/guess/

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