L2 Vocabulary Learning From Reading: Explicit and Tacit Lexical Knowledge and the Role of Learner and Item Variables

2014/04/28 by Irina Elgort, Paul Warren · 239 citations
Computer Science · Psychology · #Affect (linguistics) #Artificial intelligence #Cognition #Cognitive psychology #Communication #Computer science #Concreteness #Explicit knowledge #Lexical decision task #Lexical item #Linguistics #Meaning (existential) #Priming (agriculture) #Psychology #Reading (process) #Reading and Literacy Development #Second Language Acquisition and Learning #Task (project management) #Text Readability and Simplification #Vocabulary #Vocabulary development

paper · doi:10.1111/lang.12052

published in Language Learning 64(2), 365-414 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2014/04/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

This study investigates acquisition of second language (L2) vocabulary from reading a connected authentic text. Advanced and upper‐intermediate L2 (English) participants read a long expository text for general understanding, with embedded critical vocabulary items (pseudowords). Explicit knowledge of the critical items was examined using a meaning generation task, while their tacit knowledge was probed using form and semantic priming in lexical decision tasks. Results revealed a complex landscape of contextual L2 word learning in which individual differences (age, L2 lexical proficiency, first language, gender, learning strategies, levels of enjoyment) and lexical and text characteristics (concreteness, frequency, distribution, and saliency of use) individually and together affect L2 lexical development from reading. Implications of these results for contextual L2 word learning are discussed.

Citations

• A Comparison of the Effects of Reading and Listening on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition
• Age and Second Language Acquisition and Processing: A Selective Overview
• Facilitation in recognizing pairs of words: Evidence of a dependence between retrieval operations.

Cited by

• Learning English Through Out‐of‐School Exposure: How Do Word‐Related Variables and Proficiency Influence Receptive Vocabulary Learning?
• Children’s Knowledge of Multiple Word Meanings: Which Factors Count and For Whom?
• The effects of enhancing L2 multiword items in captions: An approximate replication of Majuddin, Siyanova-Chanturia, and Boers (2021)
• The Effect of Number and Presentation Order of High-Constraint Sentences on Second Language Word Learning. [europepmc]
• Rapid L2 Word Learning through High Constraint Sentence Context: An Event-Related Potential Study. [europepmc]
• Fuzzy Lexical Representations in Adult Second Language Speakers. [europepmc]
• Vocabulary Learning During Reading: Benefits of Contextual Inferences Versus Retrieval Opportunities. [europepmc]
• An Empirical Study of the Effects of Incidental Vocabulary Learning Through Listening to Songs. [europepmc]
• Eye movements of second language learners when reading spaced and unspaced Chinese texts. [europepmc]
• The influence of conceptual concreteness on the reading acquisition and integration of novel words into semantic memory via thematic relations. [europepmc]

Related

• Lexical representation and development in a second language
• L2 English Speakers’ Ability to Process Novel Denominal Verbs: The Role of Proficiency and Language Experience
• The contributory role of grammar vs. vocabulary in L2 reading: An SEM approach
• Psycholinguistic word information in second language oral discourse
• L2 Reading Comprehension and Its Correlates: A Meta‐Analysis