Guessing Patterns of Palestinian College Students

Abstract

Top-down models of reading emphasize methods and techniques that promote active reading which involves utilizing contextual clues to guess vocabulary meaning. This study aims at analyzing the correlation between EFL students’ general reading proficiency and guessing patterns, and identifying the types of contextual clues actually used by EFL readers of various proficiency levels. Sixty freshman students from two Palestinian universities participated in the study, and two separate tests were conducted to measure the students’ reading proficiency and their guessing patterns. Statistical analyses of the results showed that there is a high correlation between correct guessing from context and text comprehension. Readers of all levels tend to rely on local, rather than global or general, contextual clues. Moreover, although high-level readers seem to guess correctly more often than low-level readers, they all seem to favor reading backward in the text for comprehension rather than reading forward.