Term

2014

Capstone

Restricted Access Thesis

Degree Name

MAESL

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify context clues used in nonfiction literature in order to find out what context clues are used and how frequently they occur. Text analyses were done on excerpts of two stories: "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," found in a GED book, and "Brothers and Keepers," found in a college freshman literature book. The software program MAXQDA11 ® was used to help with coding and chart creation in these text analyses. In "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" 154 context clue types were identified. In "Brothers and Keepers" 152 context clue types were identified. Lexical cohesion context clues were predominant in both texts. These findings are beneficial because ELL teachers can point out that there are context clues in literature and use them to aid ELLs with predicting the definitions of unknown words when reading literature.

Share

COinS