TO INFER & WHY WE NEED TO

The Facts
When a student enters school their vocabulary is estimated to be around 10,000 words. At 12 years old the child is expected to have a vocabulary range of between 25,000 and 50,000 words and at 18 years old they will know between 40,000 and 80,000 words. This is for a native speaker of a language, for a second or third language learner this will be a lot less. In high school it is estimated that texts that students use, cover 100,000 words, at least 20,000 more words than the most accomplished native speaker, has in their vocabulary.

The issue
Students literally cannot know every word that they will need and as teachers we can try, but will not be able to predict and cover every word a student needs. It is also not always appropriate to ask a meaning of a word or use a dictionary, in an exam situation, for example. It can however, mean the difference to passing or failing examinations and general assessments if they misunderstand or dont understand one or more of the key words in a question.

What we need to do as teachers

We need to ensure that students can, or at least have a chance of being able to work out the meaning of a word when they need to, so that they can understand a situation or perform a given task. This is something that needs to be built on and reinforced throughout a students education.

 What is this question asking?

Logging is causing the destruction of rainforest habitats and in turn causing many animal species, mainly birds to suffer as their homes are being destroyed. For this reason logging in rain forests should be banned. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

How?
We need to teach students how to infer: To make a conclusion about the meaning of a word from the evidence around it. This is from other words, thinking about the overall meaning/context (how is it meant?). Logging is causing the destruction of rainforest habitats and in turn causing many animal species, mainly birds to suffer as their homes are being destroyed. For this reason logging in rain forests should be banned. To what extent do you agree with this statement? How can we work out the meaning of logging? This thing is causing animals homes to be destroyed. Birds mainly- where do birds live? What are they destroying? By bringing in other words and asking questions you could work out that logging is cutting down trees.

Questions
What do you think the word means considering (a certain action or event) has happened? How do you know that the word means (insert definition)? Where can you find other clues to help you understand? If you substitute what you think is a similar word, would the sentence still make sense?

Fill in the table with the meaning of the word- How do you know?
Murderers are usually incarcerated for longer periods of time than robbers. Those who enjoy belonging to clubs, going to parties, and inviting friends often to their homes for dinner are gregarious.

Ben is fearless, but his brother is timorous.

Dad gave credence to my story, but Mom's reaction was one of total disbelief. When we invite the Paulsons for dinner, they never invite us to their home for a meal; however, when we have the Browns to dinner, they always reciprocate.

Murderers are usually incarcerated for longer periods of time than robbers. You may infer the meaning of incarcerated by answering the question "What usually happens to those found guilty of murder or robbery?" Use the text box below to write down what you have inferred as the meaning of the word incarcerated. Those who enjoy belonging to clubs, going to parties, and inviting friends often to their homes for dinner are gregarious. You may infer the meaning of gregarious by answering the question "What word or words describe people who belong to clubs, go to parties a lot, and often invite friends over to their homes for dinner?" Use the lines below to write down what you have inferred as the meaning of the word gregarious. Ben is fearless, but his brother is timorous.

You may infer the meaning of timorous by answering the question "If Ben is fearless and Jim is very different from Ben with regard to fear, then what word describes Jim?" Write your answer on the following line.
Dad gave credence to my story, but Mom's reaction was one of total disbelief.

You may infer the meaning of credence by answering the question "If Mom's reaction was disbelief and Dad's reaction was very different from Mom's, what was Dad's reaction?" Write your answer on the following lines.
When we invite the Paulsons for dinner, they never invite us to their home for a meal; however, when we have the Browns to dinner, they always reciprocate.

The Browns differ from the Paulsons in that they do something in return when they are invited for dinner; these students conclude correctly that reciprocate means "to do something in return."