Effects of instruction in deriving word meaning from context: A meta-analysis

A meta-analysis of 21 instructional treatments aimed at enhancing the skill of deliberately deriving word meaning from context during reading shows a medium effect size of 0.43 standard deviation units (p < .000). An explorat ory multilevel regression analysis shows that clue instruction appears to b e more effective than other instruction types or just practice (beta = 0.40 ). Effect size correlates negatively with class size (beta = -.03). Implica tions for instruction and future research are discussed. Future studies sho uld investigate the effect of instruction on both the skill of deriving wor d meaning from context and incidental word learning to evaluate its contrib ution to vocabulary growth.