Vocabulary and coping with unknown words
Although unknown words in texts may cause no hesitation to the Ll reader,
they can often completely block comprehension and hold up the reading
process for the reader of a second or foreign language. Thus, it is necessary
to practise some simple strategies which are probably used unconsciously
in the mother tongue, such as inferring the meaning of new words, deciding
on the importance of certain words for the global comprehension of a text,
and dealing with compound and affixed words. The conscious practice of
these strategies requires a step-by-step presentation of the material, which
only the computer can provide for individual study.
No reading strategy or inference technique can do without a basic
knowledge of vocabulary. In teaching to read for professional purposes, it is
generally assumed that students master the 2,000 words (more or less) that
make up about 80 per cent of an average text in the subject field, plus a few
hundred more. Since specialist vocabulary is international to a large extent,
the vocabulary which such students must acquire consists of sub-technical
expressions common to most academic texts.
The huge data-storage capacity of computers can be quite useful here in
creating a dynamic dictionary which can inform students of the importance
of the words that they look up, while keeping teachers informed of the
vocabulary needs of a given student population. It also affords the possibility
of restraining too frequent consultation or access to certain categories
of words (affixed words, for example).