TEACHING-CHILDREN TO LEARN WORD MEANINGS FROM CONTEXT - A SYNTHESIS AND SOME QUESTIONS

This article reviews 14 studies investigating approaches that aimed at teaching children to be more efficient at learning words from context . In nearly all of the studies reviewed, treatments were effective at improving children's skill in learning words from context compared to a no-treatment control. However, in the 4 studies that included a prac tice-only treatment, no significant differences were found between the strategy treatment and practice-only groups. These findings suggest t hat the effects of the treatments were due to the practice rather than to the specific strategies taught. Suggestions are made for improving research examining the effects of context-clue strategies.