Chapter 1
Foundational Reading Comprehension Strategies
Course: Gre
Subject: Gre Verbal Reasoning
Chapter: Vocabulary And Word Meaning
Introduction: Three Tools for Understanding
When you encounter a challenging text, you have more than just the words on the page to help you understand. You bring your own life experiences, your knowledge of the world, and your understanding of how words are built. These tools—prior knowledge, context clues, and word structure—work together to help you construct meaning.
Skilled readers don't rely on a single strategy. They combine multiple approaches, drawing on everything they know to unlock understanding. This lesson will explore how to use prior knowledge and word structure alongside context clues to become a more confident and capable reader.
Prior Knowledge: What You Already Know
Prior knowledge is the information, experiences, and understanding you carry with you from previous learning and life experiences. Every time you read, you activate this prior knowledge without even thinking about it. It serves as a foundation upon which you build new understanding.