Learning Word Meanings From Context During Normal Reading

TLDR

Incidental word learning during normal reading has been investigated, focusing on how word and text properties influence contextual learning. This study investigated incidental learning of word meanings from context during normal reading. 352 students in grades 3, 5, and 7 read expository or narrative textbook passages and were tested six days later on difficult words, while the study examined word length, morphological complexity, part of speech, contextual support, readability, and density of difficult words. The study found small but reliable gains in word knowledge across all grades and abilities, with conceptual difficulty of words and the proportion of conceptually difficult unfamiliar words, as well as average unfamiliar word length, being the strongest predictors of contextual learning.

Abstract

This study investigated incidental learning of word meanings from context during normal reading. A total of 352 students in third, fifth, and seventh grades read either expository or narrative passages selected from grade-level textbooks, and after six days were tested on their knowledge of difficult words from the passages. Small but reliable gains in knowledge of words from the passages read were found at all grade and ability levels. Effects of word and text properties on learning from context were examined in some detail. Word properties investigated included length, morphological complexity, and part of speech. Text properties included the strength of contextual support for each word, readability as measured by standard formulas, and several measures of density of difficult words. Among the word properties, only conceptual difficulty was significantly related to learning from context. Among the text properties, learning from context was most strongly influenced by the proportion of unfamiliar words that were conceptually difficult and by the average length of unfamiliar words.