本文探討中國學生如何在閱讀英文遇到生字時，利用上下文線索來解字。本研究 所搜集的資料顯示， 中國學生在閱讀英文時所用的策略 (strategy) 與母語為其他語言之 ESL 讀者相似。 換言之， 中國學生能利用上下文、 字形、 字音及背景知識 (background information) 來幫助自己解文章內容。 閱讀程度較好的讀者， 較能利用前後文整體線索 (global cues)；而程度較差的讀者較依賴關鍵字本身或其周圍之地域性線索 (local cues) 。此項結果與其他相關性質之研究結果吻合，因此進一步肯定了某些閱讀技巧是有世界共通 性之說法。 有鑑於此，本文作者建議在閱讀教學中將一般 ESL 閱讀技巧廣泛地介紹給中國 學生，以引導他們走出逐字精確閱讀的習慣和對字之倚賴，而開始利用文章本身所提的線索 來達到閱讀的目的。

　　　　　This paper explores the contextual word-solving strategies, that is, the location of meaning clues in sentences. used by Chinese students when confronted with unfamiliar English words in their reading. The data gathered from this tudy showed that Chinese ESL students were similar to other ESL readers in strategies they used to decipher the meaning of unknown words. they were able to use contextual cues, graphic cues. and sounds, as well as background knowledge in reading. Use of forward and backward cues,examples of global cues, distin- guished good readers from poor readers. In this study, highly proficient Chinese readers used the strategies of other proficient ESL readers. This result suggests a universality of certain positive reading strategies and also implies that the pedagogical practices advocated for ESL readers in general should be appled by Chinese teachers. who at present tend to encourage accuracy and discourage guessing in reading.