Module 1: The Three Pillars of ASEAN

Table of Contents

Language Focus

Language Focus 1: Context clues: Inference, experience and summary clues


It is difficult to work out all the meanings for unfamiliar words in a text, and you do not need to know every word in the text to understand it. However, you may use other basic English knowledge to work out the meaning before using a dictionary.  A large number of English words are made up of a combination of other words.  So you can use everyday words to build up new concepts. This can be done using context clues.
Context clue means the words surrounding a particular word. If you look for the clues in the context around and unfamiliar word, you may be able to guess the meaning.  There are 3 useful context clues that can help you when you read a text:

 

1. Inference clue

An inference clue is using the information in the text to guess an unfamiliar word.

The impetus for the ASEAN nations’ integration in many ways comes from the outside. Both Japan and China have been active in financing infrastructure projects in the region, partly because a better-connected Southeast Asia will make it easier to sell their products — and, in Japan’s case, to link a vast network of suppliers to Japanese-owned factories.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/06/world/asia/asean-nations-become-more-integrated.html?_r=0 retrieved 23/6/2014)

From the context, you know the cooperation occurred among ASEAN countries. In order to work together, ASEAN is supported by its neighboring countries. Impetus means ‘a moving force’. It is possible to infer the correct meaning of impetus in this passage even though it is an unfamiliar word.
2. Experience clue

An experience clue  is imagining and discovering the meaning of the unfamiliar words based on your knowledge and experience.

New career paths: IT professionals will enjoy greater opportunity under the ASEAN Economic Community's free flow of skilled labor. If you are a talented information technology (IT) professional, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which kicks off in in 2015, could widen your regional career opportunities thanks to its guaranteed free flow of skilled labor.

(Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/258744/asean-labour-market-for-it-professionals retrieved 23/6/2014)

From your experience, the AEC blueprint will be adapted in 2015. So kick off must be ‘start’ or ‘the initial state’. Your experience and imagined experience helps you to understand the meaning of ‘kick off’.
3. Summary clue
A summary clue is summing up the meaning of the unfamiliar word from words that go before it.

ASEAN integration in 2015 may make English a lingua franca. Learning ASEAN languages will be important. Thai students have been urged to improve their English, and also learn a third language so they can compete with people from other Southeast Asian nations when the region becomes a single economic community of more than 600 million people in 2015.

(Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/243140/improving-english-skills retrieved 23/6/2014)

The phrase in short introduces a summary statement.  Lingua franca means ‘a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different’. The first sentence makes it clear that English will be used in the ASEAN community.