Rethinking common vocabularies guessing strategies A renewed case for Clarke & Nation (1980)

Abstract

In content classrooms in grades six through twelve in particular, where college readiness is of great import, incidental
learning of vocabulary through reading seems to be often coupled with guessing strategies. Such a combination may address breadth of vocabulary knowledge to some extent, but it does not seem adequate in addressing depth of knowledge such that productive language abilities are supported. I invite caution in uncritically embracing the guessing strategies that I most often see, namely those that rely on word-part knowledge, cognate knowledge, and co-text/context. In this article, I examine why such common guessing strategies are problematic.