What are 'Contextual definitions'?

It is widely accepted that a reader needs to know 95% of the words in a text in order to understand it (Nagy and Scott, 2000). It follows that, if a learner is struggling to recognise even a handful of words in a paragraph, they can very quickly become locked out of being able to make meaning. We've built the experimental student feature called 'contextual definitions' not only as a way for our young readers to stay immersed in the story, but also to help them make the most of all the opportunities for incidental vocabulary acquisition that reading offers. 'Contextual definitions' do the heavy lifting in helping students to understand how that word contributes to the meaning of the sentence

How does it work?

Whilst students are reading an ebook on Sparx Reader, when they click on a word, they'll see a small popup asking if they'd like to receive a definition.

If we have one available, we'll produce the word along with a description within the context of the passage of text they are reading.

We will also ask students to rate whether they found this definition useful, and they will also have the option to report a problem should a definition be obviously incorrect.

We have also restricted this feature for now on any rude/inappropriate words.

Can I see which words my students are looking up?

For now, as this is an experimental feature, we currently don't support showing the words that students are looking up.