Context clues in reading texts of “Barron’s TOEFL IBT” book

ABSTRACT

This research analyzes about Context Clues. This context is used to guess the unknown or unfamiliar meaning in comprehending a text. Indeed, the use of Context Clues can help the readers in solving their problem, especially in comprehending the reading text. According to Robinson (1976:60), there are two kinds of Context Clues. They are Syntactic Clues and Semantic Clues. While Spears (2000:98) says that there are four kinds of Context Clues. They are Synonym, Antonym, Example, and Situation Clues. This research used both of those theories. It is used to complete each other.

Related to the phenomenon above, this research aims to answer the following question; (1) What are kinds of Context Clues in Reading Texts of “BARRON’S TOEFL IBT” book, and (2) How are the impacts of the use of Context Clues used in Reading Texts of “BARRON’S TOEFL IBT” book?

This research is designed by using descriptive qualitative research. The data source of this research is Reading Texts of “Barron’s TOEFL IBT” book because there are many clues found in the texts. The data of this study are all sentences in the form of written text which is collected from Reading Texts of “Barron’s TOEFL IBT” book. There are seven texts which are analyzed. The steps of data collection are selecting the data will be analyzed, taking notes Context Clues found in each reading text, and classifying the data into each kind of Context Clues. To analyze the data, the researcher explained the data in each category, analyzed the data and sentences from each category more deeply, and made conclusion from the result of analysis by answering the problems of the study.

The result of this research shows that there three data found in Syntactic Clues form. Then, fifteen data found in Semantic Clues form. For Synonym Clue, there are six data found. While for Antonym Clue, there is one data found. Thus, the dominant context clues in this research are Semantic Clues. The use of context clues is very helpful for the readers to understand unknown word that they found in a reading text because the readers can guess the meaning of unknown and unfamiliar word by seeing the context.

The researcher hopes that this research can give a new contribution to the readers, especially the students who are interested in the use of Context Clues.