What is the purpose of teaching students to use context clues?

Teaching students to use context clues primarily serves to clarify the meaning of unfamiliar words. Context clues are hints found within a sentence or surrounding text that help readers infer the meanings of words they may not know. This skill is essential because it enables students to become more independent readers, allowing them to tackle challenging texts without always relying on a dictionary. By using context clues, students can improve their vocabulary acquisition and overall comprehension of the material they are reading.

In understanding the importance of context clues, it becomes clear how other options might not align as closely with this primary goal. While enhancing reading exercise performance, improving text structure understanding, or developing summarization skills are beneficial educational objectives, they do not directly focus on assisting students with unfamiliar vocabulary, which is the specific aim of utilizing context clues.