PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE

 

e-ISSN 2231-8542
ISSN 1511-3701

Home / Regular Issue / JTAS Vol. 29 (2) Jun. 2021 / JSSH-7767-2020

 

Using Context Clues in Determining Contextual Meaning of Arabic Words

Mohd Azidan Abdul Jabar and Syazmira Mansor

Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science, Volume 29, Issue 2, June 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47836/pjssh.29.2.31

Keywords: Arabic language, context clues, contextual, three-dimensional model, word meanings

Published on: 28 June 2021

Language context plays an important role in determining the meaning of a word. To understand its meaning, it is imperative that context be considered. Today, many students have difficulty understanding the meaning of Arabic words as they are unable to understand the context. However, words, phrases or sentences in a text can serve as a guide or clue to understand the meaning of unknown words. This is termed as context clues. This study aims to identify how context clues help students determine the contextual meaning of an Arabic word. Their understanding process is analysed from the critical discourse analysis perspective using a three-dimensional model introduced by Fairclough (1989). This study was conducted using a questionnaire and interviews with twenty undergraduates studying Arabic language from five Malaysian universities. Five Arabic words were selected from five news texts quoted from the Arab news portal al-Ra’i (http://alrai.com/); covering sports, economics, politics, social and technology. The words selected have many meanings, depending on the context of the sentence. Students must determine the meaning contextually by stating the context clues in the text that guided them. The findings show that context clues can help students understand the meaning of Arabic words and enhance their understanding based on its sentence context.

  • Abd Rahman, M. Z. & Abdul Jabar, M. A. (2014). Pengaruh budaya tempatan dalam pembelajaran bahasa Arab di sekolah [Influence of local culture in learning of Arabic language in school]. ElSevier Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 134, 373-381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.04.259

  • Abdul Jabar, M. A. (2011). Analisis wacana Arab [Arabic discourse analysis]. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

  • Allen, L. (1998). An integrated strategies approach: Making word identification instruction work for beginning readers. The Reading Teacher, 52(3), 254-268.

  • Baharum, A. S., & Samah, R. (2015). Persepsi pelajar universiti terhadap kesalahan bahasa Arab, faktor penyumbang dan implikasi [The perception of university students towards errors in the Arabic language, contributing factors and implications]. Sains Humanika, 6(1), 35-42. https://doi.org/10.11113/sh.v6n1.595

  • Benjamin, A., & Crow, J. T. (2009). Vocabulary at the center. Eye on Education.

  • Bromley, G. (2000). Environmental games to teach concepts and issues. School Science Review, 82(298), 39-46. 

  • Carver, R. P. (1994). Percentage of unknown vocabulary words in text as a function of the relative difficulty of the text: Implications for instruction. Journal of Literacy Research, 26(4), 413-437. https://doi.org/10.1080/10862969409547861

  • Çetinavcı, B. M. (2014). Contextual factors in guessing word meaning from context in a foreign language. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 2670-2674. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.633

  • Dash, N. S. (2008). Context and contextual word meaning. SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistic, 5(2), 21-31.

  • Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. Longman Group Limited.

  • Hall, E. T. (1974). Beyond culture. Doubleday.

  • Harris, T. L., & Hodges, R. E.  (1995). The literacy dictionary: The vocabulary of reading and writing. International Reading Association.

  • Hasmam, A. (2012). Pengalaman guru bahasa Arab menggunakan teks yang berbeza jenis dalam pengajaran kemahiran mendengar peringkat permulaan [Experience of Arabic language teachers using different types of texts in teaching beginner level listening skills]. Prosiding Persidangan Kebangsaan Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Bahasa Arab 2012 (PKEBAR’12; pp. 15-33). Unit Bahasa Arab, Fakulti Pengajian Islam, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

  • Hasmam, A., Nik Yusuf, N. M. R., Lubis, M. A., & Sjahrony, A. (2017). Amalan strategi pemahaman makna kosa kata bahasa Arab berasaskan konteks penggunaan dalam pengajaran guru cemerlang bahasa Arab [Practice of the strategy for understanding the meaning of Arabic language vocabulary based on the context of use in teaching by excellent teachers of Arabic language]. ASEAN Comparative Education Research Journal on Islam and Civilization (ACER-J), 1(2), 53-66. http://spaj.ukm.my/acerj/index.php/acer-j/article/view/27

  • Hibbard, R. (2009). The effects of context clue instruction on finding an unknown word. http://reflectivepractitioner.pbworks.com/f/capstone3.pdf

  • Hsueh-chao, M., & Nation, P. (2000). Unknown vocabulary density and reading comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 13(1), 403-430. https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.12560354.v1

  • Kamus Dewan Edisi Keempat [Dewan Dictionary Fourth Edition]. (2005). Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. 

  • Kanatlar, M. (1995). Guessing words in context strategies used by beginning and upper-intermediate learners [Unpublished master’s thesis]. Bilkent University.

  • Mahmoud, S. S. (2016). How contextual clues and nonsense words facilitate reading comprehension. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 7(1), 88-98. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0701.10

  • Mansor, S., & Abdul Jabar, M. A. (2019). Penggunaan petunjuk konteks dalam menentukan makna kontekstual perkataan Arab dalam teks berita politik [The use of context clues in determining contextual meaning of Arabic words in political news text]. The Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 6(2), 195-206.

  • Requejo, M. P. (2007). The role of context in word meaning construction: A case study. International Journal of English Studies, 7(1), 169-173. https://doi.org/10.6018/ijes.7.1.48991

  • Yuen, J. (2009). Context clue detectives: Empowering students with a self-learning device through the teaching of context clues [Unpublished master’s thesis]. University of California.

ISSN 1511-3701

e-ISSN 2231-8542

Article ID

JSSH-7767-2020

Download Full Article PDF

Share this article

Recent Articles