scholarly journals A Review on Studies into Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition through Different Input

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Zhongqing Tang
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Framework ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Reading Activities

Vocabulary acquisition, after being neglected for centuries, aroused people’s attention from the second half of last century. At that time, people began to realize, instead of grammar, vocabulary occupies the central role in language acquisition (Gass & Selinker, 1994). Compared with intentional vocabulary acquisition, incidental vocabulary acquisition was found to be the major way for people to acquire vocabularies. Early studies into incidental vocabulary acquisition focused on incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading activities. Later on, people found that listening activities was another good way to enhance incidental vocabulary acquisition. Nowadays, task mode of incidental vocabulary acquisition has become more pluralistic than before. This article is to review studies into incidental vocabulary acquisition through different input and point out the limitations of previous studies. The first limitation of previous studies is that word knowledge framework was undefined in previous studies and the second limitation is that prior knowledge, an factor which needs to be controlled, was neglected by some scholars. This review will hopefully provide some suggestions for both language teachers and language learners.

scholarly journals An Experimental Research on the Effects of Types of Glossing on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition through Reading

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 782
Author(s):  
Shan Liu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Acquisition Rate ◽  
Retention Testing ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Chinese And English

A large amount of research has been conducted to delve into the means of improving the rate of incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading, which includes providing glosses or annotations, increasing the reoccurrence of the target words and taking the advantage of dictionaries. But little has been done on the effects of different types of glossing on incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading. The present study has been aimed at finding out whether the three different types of glossing, i.e. glossing in Chinese, glossing in English, and glossing in both Chinese and English, have different effects on enhancing the incidental vocabulary acquisition rate through reading. From the data analysis of the present study, it has been found that in terms of enhancing the depth of vocabulary knowledge in incidental vocabulary learning through reading, glossing in both Chinese and English is the most effective glossing type, whether it be in the immediate retention testing section or the delayed retention testing section. In terms of enhancing the breadth of vocabulary knowledge, glossing in Chinese is the most effective one in the immediate retention of the breadth of word knowledge, and glossing in both Chinese and English is the most effective in the delayed retention of the breadth of word knowledge. On the basis of these findings, implications and suggestions for the arena of foreign language teaching and other related fields have been proposed.

scholarly journals Incidental vocabulary acquisition from documentary viewing: A study on the role of captions

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-96
Author(s):  
Marion Durbahn
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Relative Gains ◽  
L2 Vocabulary

This study investigated the incidental acquisition of second language (L2) vocabulary through the viewing of a 30-minute science documentary and the effect of captioning on this process. Thirty-four English language learners watched two documentaries (one captioned and one uncaptioned) and were then assessed on their knowledge of a set of words appearing in the documentaries. Results of the Vocabulary Tests (Form-recall/Spelling, and Meaning recognition) showed that documentary viewing led to significant acquisition of new vocabulary and that the captioning condition had a significant effect on this learning. Captioning boosted the gains on meaning recognition, form recall and spelling. Results indicated that relative gains in the captioning condition are 8% significantly higher than in the uncaptioned condition.

The effects of word form variation and frequency on second language incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Lee Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Marginal Effect ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Morphological Form ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Target Words

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate whether frequency of occurrence and the level of morphological form variation (i.e., none, inflectional, and derivational) exhibited by target words might interact to affect incidental acquisition through reading. An intact class of English as a foreign language learners (n=32) was given a copy of an unmodified 37,611-token English novel containing 49 target nonce words to read within two weeks. After reading, they were given two unexpected forms of assessment (meaning recall translation and meaning recognition multiple-choice). Meaning recall results indicate an average of 10 words having been acquired and meaning recognition results indicate an average of 25 words having been acquired. For the meaning recall data, a significant interaction effect between word form variation and frequency was found. Results point towards the conclusion that an increase in frequency may have a beneficial effect on acquisition for words whose tokens vary inflectionally, a marginal effect for words that do not vary in form, and little to no effect on words that vary derivationally. Examination of the meaning recognition acquisition results for a subset of 29 target words occurring 2–4 times to control for frequency of exposure found a significant effect for word form variation. Post hoc comparisons indicated that participants acquired significantly more target words that did not vary in form. There was no significant difference in acquisition between those that varied inflectionally and derivationally. Taken as a whole, the results of the current study indicate that word form variation does affect incidental acquisition and it can indeed present second language learners with difficulties, especially when less frequent input is received of words that vary in form. Implications for future incidental vocabulary acquisition research and classroom pedagogy incorporating reading and vocabulary instruction are discussed.

scholarly journals Vocabulary acquisition, input, and extensive reading: A conversation

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Extensive Reading ◽  
Acquisition Process

JALT member Joseph Poulshock recently posted a video entitled “How do humans acquire language?” to the extensive reading (ER) website BeeOasis.com. In it, he describes his ALBUM Theory (acquire language by understanding messages), by which he means that the comprehension of input―for example, through ER―is the best way to acquire a second language. The video prompted an online discussion in which a number of JALT members exchanged ideas about the acquisition of vocabulary, the role of ER in the acquisition of various aspects of word knowledge, and the relative importance of input to the language acquisition process. An abbreviated version of this conversation is presented here.

Grade 3 ESL teachers’ (mis)conceptions about vocabulary acquisition, learning and instruction: A case study

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jabulani Sibanda
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Teacher Interview ◽  
Second Language Teachers ◽  
Grade 3

development-related (mis)conceptions of ten purposively selected Grade 3 English Second Language teachers in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, with a view to indexing their vocabulary pedagogical practices. The efficacy of teacher cognition on teaching  practices is the theory upon which the present study, which considers vocabulary development as a proxy for literacy attainment, is based. The theory is buttressed by literature on the research-based best practices in literature development against which teachers’ conceptionsare measured. Semi-structured teacher interview findings showed that vocabulary instruction proceeded largely on the basis of intuitive pedagogical decisions which evince dissonance with researchbased best practices. There was a manifest disregard for both incidental andcontextualised vocabulary development, and an apparent underestimation of learners’ potential for independent vocabulary acquisition. Professed instructional strategies only drew learners’ attention to the orthographic and phonological forms of the words at the expense of other crucial dimensions of word knowledge. The paper recommends a consideration of teachers’ vocabulary development-related  perceptions as a point of departure for teacher education and teacher professional development, among others.  

The effect of morphological form variation on adult first language incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Lee Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Extensive Reading ◽  
Morphological Form ◽  
Content Type ◽  
English Novel ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Drawing Tasks

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the effects of word internal morphological form variation on adult first language (L1) (n= 20) incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading.Design/methodology/approachParticipants were given a 37,611-token English novel containing pseudo words, placed throughout the text by the novelist. Two unexpected vocabulary assessments were administered at the completion of the reading task.FindingsResults showed statistically significant effects for morphological form variation, with the readers having incidentally acquired more words whose tokens did not vary in form (i.e. no exposure to inflectional or derivational variants). However, a large effect size was present only for low-frequency words (two-four exposures).Originality/valueDiscussion of the results is given regarding the feasibility of enhancing adult L1 college readers’ morphological awareness through extensive reading and attention-drawing tasks.

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