在語境中學習英語詞匯知識的策略

詞匯是語境的基本單位，詞匯在具體的語境中才具有真實#65380;豐滿#65380;生動#65380;鮮明的意義#65377;換言之，語境是詞匯“生命力”的根本，詞匯是語境具體特征的承載者#65377;語境可看做是根據(jù)基本特征可被分類和描述的篇章中的詞素#65380;句法和語篇的信息#65377;這是篇章內部的語境，讀者需要掌握的篇章主旨(subject matter)的背景知識，是一般語境(general context)知識#65377;在處理篇章和預測詞匯類型#65380;范疇和意義時，有能力的讀者靠一種策略嫻熟地駕馭，該策略共分五步:(1)找出生詞的詞類#65377;(2)觀察生詞鄰近語境，如果需要對該語境進行簡化#65377;(3)觀察生詞的擴展語境，也就是觀察包含生詞的小句與其周圍小句和句子的關系#65377;(4)猜生詞詞義#65377;(5)檢驗猜測是否正確#65377;

一#65380;運用直接語境線索

閱讀中學生肯定會遇到一些生詞，這時候并不要求他們立即去詞典中查找這些生詞，而是要求他們繼續(xù)讀下去#65377;有時語境會告訴他們這些生詞的類型和范疇，進而推知它們大體的意義#65377;

Ex.1 Garlic is not as mild as its cousins，the onion and the leek.It has one of the strongest flavors known to man.It＇s been found that the oils of the garlic do not stick to the teeth，tongue，or gums.They go into the lungs instead.

在第一個句子中學生可能不認識單詞leek，但他們確實知道leek是一種吃的東西#65377;在第二句中gum可能是個生詞，但從上下文中可清楚地看出它是人體的一部分，尤其與mouth有聯(lián)系#65377;由此看來即使不知道這些詞的具體意義，學生也能看懂句子的大體意思#65377;

二#65380;運用同義詞語境線索

單詞的語境由其周圍的單詞和它使用的環(huán)境(situation)組成#65377;當學生在閱讀中遇到生詞時，我總是鼓勵他們根據(jù)語境去猜測詞義#65377;因為在句子和段落中常常有一些學生熟知的詞來幫助他們把握詞匯類型和范疇，甚至弄清生詞的意義，同義詞就是其中的一種語境線索#65377;

Ex.2 As he spoke，he opened the door of the stove and stuffed in as many sticks of wood as he could possibly press inside.

開始學生可能不知道stuff的意思，當讀完該句子時他們會發(fā)現(xiàn)press和stuff表達的意義相同#65377;因此，press就成了stuff的同義詞線索#65377;

三#65380;運用反義詞語境線索

與提供相同詞義的同義詞線索不同，反義詞線索提供生詞的相反意義#65377;

Ex.3 A special method of photography，called microphotography，was used.By this method，men could reduce writing to miniature size.Then one bird could carry thousands of dispatches on one trip.When the dispatch was received，it was enlarged by photography so that it once more became possible for the human eye to read it.

在該段落中，如果學生不知道reduce的意義，會給閱讀理解造成一定困難#65377;當他們繼續(xù)讀下去時，語境告訴他們，文字首先被縮小然后又被放大#65377;Enlarge的意義——使事物變大——會使學生推導出reduce的意思可能會是“使事物變小”#65377;因此enlarge就充當了reduce的反義詞線索，短語once more表示了從小到大的變化過程，這也使意義變得更加明了#65377;

四#65380;運用詞的聯(lián)想語境線索

句子由詞或詞組構成，表達一定的意義#65377;從邏輯關聯(lián)意義方面來看詞或詞組的出現(xiàn)，會使人們聯(lián)想到與其意義有關的一些詞語#65377;例如:sea-voyage，grass-green，school-students，swim-pool，book-publish，etc.讓我們來看一個摘自Mister Imagination中的一個例子#65377;

Ex.4 Experts in mathematics would spend weeks checking his ________ .

如果該句子單獨出現(xiàn)，學生會覺得該問題有若干個答案#65377;但是在該篇章中語境告訴他們，數(shù)學是一門數(shù)據(jù)(figures)科學，mathematics 和figures相聯(lián)系，在該語境中它們會一起出現(xiàn)#65377;因此figures便成為該問題的正確答案，該語境線索幫助學生確定了該句子中的詞際關系，即所屬范疇#65377;

五#65380;運用重復語境線索

為了強調某種觀點或為了使表達更明了，作者有時用不同的詞語去表達相同的意義#65377;這種界定了范疇的#65380;用來作解釋的重復意義，就稱為重復語境線索#65377;

Ex.5 Henry Morton Stanley received one of the strangest assignments ever handed to a newspaper reporter.He was working for the New York Herald，and what he was asked to do was to go into the wilds of Africa to find Dr.David Livingstone，who had been given up for lost.

當學生閱讀第一個句子時他們也許會提出這樣一個問題: What is the strangest assignment?這時候不要讓學生停下來，而是讓其繼續(xù)讀下去，作者在下面一句中就對此作出了解釋:what he was asked to do was to go into the wilds of Africa to find Dr.David Livingstone.意義的重復使學生明白了assignment的意思，即the work one is asked to do.筆者認為，一旦學生學會了運用重復線索技巧，其閱讀速度會得到提高，閱讀能力也相應得到改善#65377;

六#65380;運用對比，對照語境線索

在論述中作者常常將兩個或兩個以上主題，如人#65380;地點#65380;情景#65380;觀點等進行比較或對比，以便展示它們之間的相同點和不同點#65377;

Ex.6 Carol and Ross enjoy going to the beach，but while they are there，they behave very differently.Carol has fair skin and cannot stay in the sun for long.Ross，on the other hand，is dark-skinned and can stay outdoors all day without burning.Carol，who is not a good swimmer，cannot fight the strong waves and ocean currents，while Ross，an excellent athlete and a fine swimmer，enjoys the challenge of the ocean.They bring food to the beach each day.Ross eats several sandwiches while Carol eats very little.One thing they have in common is their fondness for reading books on the beach and talking to their friends.

讀完該段落后我們得知Ross的皮膚比Carol的黑;比起Carol來，Ross更喜歡玩水;在海灘上，午飯Ross比Carol吃得多#65377;盡管有這些差別，兩人都喜歡在海灘上讀書#65380;與朋友交談#65377;筆者認為，這種所屬范疇明顯的比較和對比，可幫助學生從更廣角度理解作者要表達的意思，并使閱讀效率得到提高#65377;

七#65380;運用詞綴語境線索

附加詞綴法是英語三種主要的構詞法之一#65377;一般說來，前綴的附加，通常只引起語義上的改變，而不能導致詞類的轉化#65377;后綴的附加，可造成詞類的轉化#65377;例如:national(國家的)——international (國際的)，educate (v)——education (n)#65377;但在文章中，無論是詞義的改變，還是詞類的轉化，只要和語境聯(lián)系起來，就能得知其正確的意義#65377;

Ex.7 The anti-globalization protesters had a big demonstration against the International Conference on Globalization in front of the Hilton Hotel where the Prime Minister was giving an opening speech.In order to protect the delegations from all over the world，the police formed a strong human wall pushing out the protesters.

在這一段落中，我們根據(jù)上下文不難理解anti-globalization中的anti意為against.根據(jù)短語the delegations from all over the world的意思可以推知International中的inter意為among 或者between.

通過討論我們看出，詞匯知識對閱讀的影響力很大，閱讀也是提高詞匯知識的重要手段#65377;然而這些彼此之間關系的本質以及在閱讀中該怎樣利用這些關系，仍須我們花大力氣去探索#65377;筆者認為:通過語境習得詞匯應是提升詞匯知識的有效途徑，而且還有助于提高閱讀理解能力，應是外語學習者努力的方向#65377;

參考文獻

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[2] Yap，KO Vocabulary-building blocks of comprehension?Journal of Reading Behavior，1979.

[3] Holley，F(xiàn).M.A study of vocabulary learning in context:the effect of new-word density in German reading materials.Foreign Language Annals，1973.

[4] Bensoussan，M.and Laufer，B.Lexical guessing in context in EFL reading comprehension.Journal of Research in Reading，1984.

[5] Laufer，B.and Sim，D.D.Taking the easy way out:non-use and misuse of clues in EFL reading.ET Forum，1985.

(責任編輯 張茂林)