It often happens that you will be reading a book or an article in a magazine or newspaper, and you will read a word that you don’t understand. Oftentimes, if you want to understand what you are reading, you will have to look the word up in the dictionary or ask someone the definition of the word. But what happens if you still don’t understand the word from the definition the dictionary gives, or if there is no one to ask?
Contextual vocabulary acquisition is a way to understand vocabulary and improve your reading skills. Contextual vocabulary acquisition uses clues in the surrounding text of the unknown vocabulary word to figure out the definition. Contextual vocabulary acquisition is actually more common than most people know. About 90% of vocabulary is learned from context through reading or listening.
Current vocabulary building and reading methods are either too vague or seriously flawed when it comes to teaching vocabulary. That could pose a problem for students preparing for the SAT.
If students don’t have a strong vocabulary, and if they don’t know what words mean or have poor reading skills, they could struggle with the SAT. Taking an SAT prep course could help with this, but taking a vocabulary building course could help even more. Vocabulary building courses could incorporate Word of the day exercises or other Word Smart exercises to help improve reading skills and build vocabulary.
Prepare your student for the SAT today with Word Smart vocabulary building exercises!