Context Clues

Context is sometimes called “The Big Picture”. People live their lives in the context of the place and time they live. The meaning of events and experiences are determined by the context of the situation. The more experience a person has, the better able he or she is to use the context of the situation to learn new things.

What are context clues?

The more experience you have reading, and the greater the size of your vocabulary, the better you will be able to use the “Big Picture” to learn the meaning of new words or phrases. Without understanding the “Big Picture”, or the general meaning of what you read, you will not be able to read as quickly, or understand as much.

You will need to rely on the dictionary more often to look up words. Using the dictionary is a good thing to do when you can’t guess the meaning of a word or if you want to check your guess. Using a dictionary too often means that your reading is interrupted. This makes it more difficult to understand and to remember what you read.

Writers use words, phrases, clauses, and punctuation to put words and ideas in context.