On Importance of The Strategy of Guessing from Context for National Matriculation English Test

李伯勛

【Abstract】In the National Matriculation English Test （shortly NMET）， the greatest difficulty is the unknown or key words. The solution for such a problem is the key to getting good score in the test. As the strategy of guessing from context is an effective way， its importance on the NMET will be discussed in the essay and the conclusion is made that mastering such a strategy is a key for high school students to get good scores in the NMET.

【Key words】the strategy of guessing from context； NMET； importance

1.Definition of Strategy of Guessing from Context

The strategy refers to the one of guessing the meanings of some unknown and key words that appear in one text through the comprehensive understanding of the information， logical and background knowledge as well as language structure in the text. As those words are key to get scores in English tests， especially the NMET， if the high school students who will attend the NMET can use such a strategy effectively， they will be able to get good scores very easily， which will be very important for whether they will be able to enter into their own ideal universities.

2.Three Skills of Strategy of Guessing from Context

The strategy includes three skills， namely definition clues， explanation clues and example clues. All their details are shown as follows：

2.1 Definition Clues

The skill refers to making use of the definition clues in English texts to guess the the meanings of unknown or key words. Such questions are usually seen in the texts of the NMET that some definitions for some words are made while those definitions usually include one key word that appears in the following questions that need to be solved. So， understanding the definitions become the key to solve such questions. The features of definition clues are that the sentences with definitions usually include such words and phrases as be， be called， mean， refer to， be defined as and etc that are used to define some words. For example：

Ventilation， as you know， is a system or means of providing fresh air. It plays a very important part in the field of engineering.

Here， the words after Ventilation are the key to guess its meaning. So， if students can analyze those words very carefully， they can know that its meaning is air. Therefore， when dealing with such questions， students need to pay attention to the specific contents of the words about the word to be defined. In this way， such questions can be solved easily.

2.2 Explanation Clues

The skill refers to making use of the explanation clues in English texts to guess the meanings of unknown or key words. In the texts of the NMET， there are some explanations for some words. So， those explanations become important clues for students to guess the meanings of those words. The features of such clues are that the sentences with explanations for some key words usually include such words and phrases as that is to say， in other words， namely， or and etc that are connected with the words to be defined. Furthermore， the attributive and the appositive clauses are also usually used to do so. For example：

His uncle is a zoologist， an expert who does research on animals.

Here， if students can analyze carefully the explanations for zoologist， namely the words after it， they can know that it refers to the person who studies animals. Therefore， when such unknown words appear in the texts of the NMET， the explanations for them become the important clues to guess their meanings. So， students who attend the NMET should pay attention to such clues. In this way， those questions can be solved easily.

2.3 Example Clues

The skill refers to making use of the example clues in English texts to guess the meanings of some unknown or key words. In the texts of the NMET， in order to explain some words more clearly， some examples are held， which becomes the clues for guessing the meanings of those words. So， students must analyze those examples carefully， such questions can be solved very easily. The features of such clues are that the sentences with examples include some key words and phrases such as for example， for instance， such as， like and etc. Furthermore， the punctuation is also a very important clue for students to guess the meanings of unknown words. For example：

Like people in any country， Americans enjoy following the lives of celebrities： movie stars， sports heroes， famous artists， politicians and the like.

Here， if students can analyze the words after celebrities， namely the examples about the word， they will be able to know that it refers to the famous persons. From such an example， it can be shown that some key words like for example， for instance， such as and etc as well as some punctuation are very important clues to guess the meanings of the unknown or key words. So， when solving those questions in the NMET， the example clues should be analyzed very carefully and then the meanings of the unknown or key words will be known very easily. In this way， the right answers can be found.

3.Importance of Strategy of Guessing from Context for NMET

Guessing from context is an effective strategy. So， the students who will attend the NMET must master it as it has the importance for the test as follows：

Firstly， mastering the strategy can help students to make a quick and accurate choice when solving reading questions in the NMET， which can save them much more times. As everyone knows， the limited time of the test is two hours while reading questions take a large proportion. So， this means that the students who attend the test must find the answers to those questions with high speed and accuracy. But， as what has been mentioned， the key or unknown words are great obstacles to achieve it. So， if students waste a lot of times to solve such a problem， it will have bad effect on solving other questions， which can prevent them from getting good scores in the test. So， an effective way to solve such a problem becomes very important. The strategy of guessing from context belongs to the effective way. If students master it， when seeing the key or unknown words， they cant feel nervous and find the right answers easily. In this way， they can get good scores in the test very easily. Therefore， it can be said that in the face of such an important test， the high school students who will attend it must master the strategy of guessing from the context， which can determine whether they get good scores in the test.

Secondly， mastering the strategy can help students to enlarge their vocabularies and strengthen their reading abilities， which can promote to improving their scores in the NMET. The test needs students to master a large number of English vocabularies. This is because without enough vocabularies， it will be very hard for them to solve the questions in the test. But， as for how to enlarge vocabularies， some students do it only by remembering word lists in the English teaching materials. But， this is not effective way as they are apt to forget those words after remembering. The unknown words suddenly seen are apt to be remembered as they can leave deep impressions in the mind while the strategy of guessing from context is an effective one to remember such words. So， the strategy is an effective way of enlarging vocabularies. Furthermore， the meanings of English words have associations. For example， if you know the meaning of celebrities， you will be able to some relevant words such as movie stars， sport hero and so on. In this way， your vocabularies will become larger and larger， which proves in further step that the strategy is an effective way of enlarging vocabularies. If you have a large number of vocabularies， it will be easy for you to get good scores in the NMET. Furthermore， the strategy can strengthen students reading abilities， which can improve their scores in the test in further step. If students can master such a strategy， they can guess the meanings of the key or unknown words from the overall text， which means that they can master the idea of such text. In this way， their reading abilities can be strengthened. It is notable that the NMET specially focuses on examining students such abilities. So， the questions about guessing the meanings of key or unknown words from context are usually made out. Therefore， if the high school students who attend the test want to get good scores， they must master such a strategy.

Lastly， mastering the strategy can make students use words according to specific contexts and stimulate their interests for English studying， which is the most effective way of improving their scores in the NMET. Text has also context as it has its own structure and idea， which means that the key or unknown words are in the context. So， if students can master such a strategy， they can know how to use those words according to specific contexts. For example， if students know the meaning of the word celebrities in the third example by guessing its meaning from example clues after it， they can know that when referring to some famous persons， they will use such a word to describe them， which is very important for them to improve their English levels， which can make them get good scores in the NMET very easily. Furthermore， as everyone knows， English words have correlation with relevant cultural knowledge. For example， if they can guess the meaning of celebrities from the context， they can can expand its meaning and know many famous persons in the world such as Micheal Jackson， Micheal Jordan， Barack Obama and so on. In this way， their cultural knowledge can be enriched， which can stimulate their interests for English studying. If their such interests are stimulated， they will study English very easily. So， getting good scores in the NMET is also very easy. Therefore， the high school students who will attend such test must master such a strategy if they want to get good scores.

4.Conclusion

From above all， it can be known that the strategy of guessing from contexts can make students enhance their speeds and accuracy for solving reading questions， enlarge their vocabularies and strengthen reading abilities， improve their abilities to use English words and enrich their cultural knowledge. All those things are benefit to get good scores in the NMET for them. Therefore， the conclusion can be made that mastering such a strategy is a key for high school students to get good scores in the NMET.

【References】

[1]Brown， H. D. Teaching by Principles： An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy[M]. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2001： 283-316

[2]Schmitt， N. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics[M]. Beijing： World Publishing Corporation， 2008：44-45

[3]楊樹根. 2014全國各省市高考試卷匯編[M].蕪湖：安徽師范大學(xué)出版社，2015：5-10

[4]王平. 閱讀過程中的語境詞意猜測[J].陜西師范大學(xué)學(xué)報，2007.25（3）：62-65

[5]Nation， P. Managing Vocabulary[M]. Beijing： Peoples Education Press， 2007： 20-23