A key means of developing vocabulary in English for Specific Purposes. Context clues

Enlarging the learner’s vocabulary has been one of the important objectives of any class of English, be it English for Special Purposes or an English reading class. Obviously, there are different ways to achieve this objective. In most traditional classes the usual practice is that whenever a new word or phrase comes up in a passage of a text, in an exercise, etc., the learners either rely on their teacher for the definition of the word or they look it up in the dictionary. The drawbacks of this approach are evident. Too much dictionary work tends to distract the learner’s attention. At the same time, it increases the learner’s dependency on the teacher and the dictionary, too.