Step One: Punctuation

​Some texts use punctuation to include the definition or synonym immediately after the word. Look for parenthesis () commas , and dashes - right after the unknown word. ​

Ex. College reading is very complicated--hard to understand. This is because many readers are not acquainted (familiar) with academic texts. These texts can be baffling, incomprehensible, or unclear for students.   



Step Two: Examples

Some texts use expressions like "in other words," "that is," "for example," "i.e.," and "ex." to provide readers with a rephrased definition or example of the word. These examples and rephrases can help learners guess the meaning. 

Ex. Mrs. Smith will be the course instructor; i.e., the teacher. Many students find her strict; for example, she will mark you late if you are not in your seat and if you even touch your cell phone you will lose class points. 



Step Three: Cognates

Does this word look like a word in their native or first language? Some words look similar and have similar meanings across languages, these are cognates. Be aware that there are false cognates, but these are not as common as real cognates. 

Ex. Spanish manual and English manual. English hut and Russian ​hata (xata). Japanese suupaa and English supermarket.



Step Four: Anything Familiar? (roots/prefixes/suffixes)

Many words can be broken down into different parts. Prefixes are the parts at the beginning like pre-, re-, and un-. Roots are the main part or main meaning of the word. Suffixes are the parts at the end like -ly, -ment, and -able. Look for any part of the word that the learner may recognize or know the meaning of. 

Ex. My teacher often is emotionless during class... the suffix -less means without or lacking. So this would be without emotion. 



Step Five: Part of Speech (noun, verb, adjective, & adverb) 

What is this word's part of speech? Knowing this can help learners determine its meaning. If the unknown word is a noun, what words describe or modify it? What action does it preform? If the unknown word is a verb, what words describe or modify the action? Who or what is doing the action? Another great thing about part of speech is that they can also see if they know any other words from its family (the noun, verb, adverb, or adjective form). 

Ex. Students who read constantly improve their reading rate. Constantly is an adverb​ and is describing how students read. Sometimes that is all you need to know. However, you may also know a family member, constant (adj), which means continual and regular.  Using this learners may guess that "read constantly" means to continually or regularly read. 



Step Six: Grammar and Sentence Relations

​Sometimes looking at the grammar of the sentence and its surroundings can give learners clues. Are there signal words/discourse markers like but, however, in addition, similarly, when, if and then, so, since, because, as a result, etc? Are there reference words like this, that, and such? If there are no such words they could also look for relationships like cause and effect, contrast, inclusion, summary, examples.

Ex. Because the students didn't study, they failed the exam. Based on this, we know that students didn't study and that had the effect of students failing the exam. If you don't study, you will not do well. So students who failed did not do well on the exam. 



Step Seven: Replace the Word With a Guess

Sometimes covering up the word, or imagining a blank, and replacing it with a logical guess will help your learners understand.

Ex. There are many different approaches for learning new vocabulary. Now create a blank or cover "approaches". You could imagine something like this...There are many different ________________ for learning new vocabulary. Words like ways or processes would be logical guesses. So approach probably means a way or process. 

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Step Eight: Look It Up

​When none of these strategies work AND the word is repeated frequently or is necessary for understanding then take the time to look up the definition. Most often descriptive words like adjective and adverbs, can be skipped without hurting comprehension. On the other hand, nouns and verbs carry a lot of content and are words that could limit comprehension and learners would want to learn or look up. As a general rule, look up nouns and verbs found in topic sentences, headings, or main ideas. Generally, they can skip adverbs and adjectives.