Teaching Use of Context Clues to Infer Word Meanings to Students Who Struggle with Reading Comprehension

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of instruction in the use of context clues to infer the word meanings from context on the reading comprehension of four fourth-grade elementary school students who had difficulty constructing meaning from what they read (<50% comprehension average). Before the intervention, a reading vocabulary test instrument was used to assess whether participants had the ability to infer word meanings from context. Afterward, wrong analysis inventory was used to screen study participants' initial levels of reading comprehension. Following the intervention, social validity data were obtained to assess the social validity of intervention outcomes via a social validity survey that included in-person interviews with all participants. Baseline data showed that all participants had poor reading comprehension scores on the dependent measures, which included short answer response items. The intervention results indicated that after the instruction, from the baseline to the independent performance phase probes each participant increased their reading comprehension scores significantly. Data from social validity demonstrated that all four participants were highly very satisfied with all items, indicating positive reactions to the instructional intervention. Participants believed that this type of instruction provided themselves with important experiences in which they learned how to read the words in texts, and understand unknown word meanings they encountered during reading. This study suggests that an instruction task based on the process of learning word meanings from context for students with poor reading comprehension appears to be a practical, and powerful model for improvement of their achievement in reading comprehension.