IELTS Tips: Guessing the meaning of words from context
Do you know how to deal with unknown vocabulary on the IELTS reading test? Take a look at this strategy to help you move seamlessly through the reading section without getting bogged down by difficult words.
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One very important and often overlooked skill when it comes to IELTS reading guessing the meaning of a word you don’t recognize. It’s normal when we are reading in our second language to not understand some of the words, especially in an academic text. On the IELTS, you are guaranteed to encounter words you don’t understand. Obviously, you won’t have your trusty dictionary during the exam, but you have to proceed somehow. Don’t let these words stop you from understanding the rest of the text. Use strategies to get around this blockade.
Understanding the meaning of a word in context
The context is the information surrounding the word you don’t understand. Based on the other sentecnes in the reading, and how the word is used, it may be possible for you to guess the meaning.
Let’s look at an example.
“Most people can readily conjure images inside their head - known as their mind's eye. But this year scientists have described a condition, aphantasia, in which some people are unable to visualise mental images.”
So what does the word “conjure” mean? Even if you have never seen this word before, you can probably make an educated guess based on the context.
Let’s take a closer look:
“Most people can readily conjure images inside their head … some people are unable to visualise mental images”
Here we can see that a contrast between people who CAN and CANNOT do something, is used to show us two synonyms of the same idea. Conjure is the same as visualize, and the sentence tells us it is about making pictures in our mind.
Let’s look at another example.
"This inhuman place makes human monsters," wrote Stephen King in his novel The Shining. Many academics agree that monsters lurk in the deepest recesses, they prowl through our ancestral minds appearing in the half-light, under the bed - or at the bottom of the sea.
What does “lurk” mean? Let’s look closer:
monsters lurk in the deepest recesses, they prowl through our ancestral minds appearing in the half-light, under the bed - or at the bottom of the sea.
From this sentence, you can see that the author gives more detail and example after the word lurk. They paraphrase it as “prowl” and also give us areas where this activity might happen: in half-light, under the bed, and at the bottom of the ocean. All scary places where monsters might be hiding, so that’s what lurk must mean.
In conclusion, if you are planning to take your IELTS test, you should expect to come across some unknown words in the reading test. Quite often you can just skip it and keep reading because you’ll probably find that the context shows you enough about the word to understand the meaning.
Good luck out there on your test!