The Importance of Contextual Meaning in English Reading.docVIP

The Importance of Contextual Meaning in English Reading 　　【Abstract】Context is the most important concept in pragmatic study，which has been the basis of proper understanding of language. Utterances and situation are bound up closely with each other and the context of situation is indispensable for the understanding of words. Context actually serves as the basis for the proper comprehension of language and is particularly of vital importance to clear understanding of internal meaning of language， since people always express their particular inner feelings by using utterances under different circumstances or certain cultural backgrounds. Therefore， it’s very important to comprehend the contextual meaning of the key words. 　　【Key words】Context； Linguistic context； Non-linguistic context； Reading comprehension 　　0 Introduction 　　As we know， reading is a kind of written and communicative activity which can not be comprehended though the use of non-verbal devices. Therefore， reading comprehension is more dependent on context， and students need to make use of every type of contextual knowledge in their reading. Malinowski pointed out that a word without linguistic context is just a meaningless segment and any language either spoken or written is meaningless but in context. In the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching Applied Linguistics， the definition of context is the following： that which occurs before and after a word， a phrase or even a longer UTTERANCE or a TEXT. In fact， reading material itself is a context， and the activity of comprehending a material also takes place in certain context. Thus， context plays a significant role in reading comprehension. 　　1 Context-based Approach to Reading 　　As we know， context is classified into linguistic context and non-linguistic context. Linguistic context refers to the inner-linguistic factors which influence the meaning of language while non-linguistic context refers to the extra-linguistic factors which affect t