The Development of a Classification Scheme of Contextual Aids

DETERMINES from the verbal responses of readers, the types of contextual aids that serve as clues to the meanings that might be attached to simulated words, and classifies these contextual aids on the basis of the elements of the verbal context that was utilized by the reader. An introspective technique was used in collecting data. Subjects were twelve advanced graduate students pursuing Ph.D.'s in education. Twenty reading selections were chosen from The Saturday Evening Post and the Reader's Digest. The particular contextual situations to be analyzed were randomly chosen: every fiftieth word in the text, provided that word was either an adjective, an adverb, a noun, or a verb. A classification scheme of contextual aids containing 14 distinct categories was devised. The author concludes that it is possible to place the types of contextual aids that readers use successfully into a classification scheme of substantial reliability.