Overcoming Unknown Words

Abstract

This article discuses an exploratory study, which used questionnaire responses to identify the word-solving strategies (WSS)/ word attack skills used by Saudi university students when encountering an unknown word while reading an English text. The participants were low intermediate students in their first university level at the University of Imam Muhammad bin Saud, Algaseem branch. The purpose of the study is to find out whether and how the participants would use the different word-solving strategies mentioned in the literature (i.e. guessing, appealing for assistance, and skipping). The findings suggest that all the participants had preferences in using all strategies but with some tendency to use appealing for assistance a little more. Skipping strategies do not seem to be very popular among the students vis-à-vis other strategies. The article aims to suggest some implications for the field of teaching English as a foreign language.