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Guessing game gets the word in language learning

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GUESSING is a favourite strategy among students in language learning and testing, each following his or her own chosen ''route'' according to the individual's level of skill.

The ''guessing'' revelation was the finding in a study conducted by Gui Shichun, professor with the Department of English, Guangzhou Institute of Foreign Languages.

The professor was speaking recently at an open lecture on ''A Cognitive Approach to the Problem of Guessing in Lexical Testing''.

The lecture was organised by the Hong Kong Polytechnic China Liaison Group.

Professor Gui said: ''Students tend to guess if they are uncertain about a tested item, but their guessing is by no means random.'' In an experiment to investigate various aspects of guessing in language learning, students were given several choices of a Chinese synonym for an English word.

Results showed that ''students with low language ability will rely on their superficial knowledge about the tested item, whereas the ones with higher ability will depend more on their knowledge about meaning associations''.

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