Paper Title
Reading for Meaning and Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition
Author's Name, Institution and E-mail Address
Mariko Wei, Purdue University, moroishi@purdue.edu
Abstract
That second language learners incidentally gain a
significant amount of unfamiliar vocabulary while
reading for "meaning" has been reported repeatedly by
second language acquisition (SLA) researchers
(Dupuy & Krashen, 1993; Hulstijn, 1992). Yet, the future
research agenda includes such issues as: what the
actual mechanism of incidental acquisition is and how
instructional intervention could enhance the process of
incidental vocabulary learning. Several recent studies
have found positive evidence supporting the use of
explicit vocabulary instruction in conjunction with
extensive reading (Paribakht & Wesche, 1997; Qian,
1996; Zimmerman, 1994). However, in the case of
Japanese, there is little research available on this
matter, and more empirical studies that investigate
whether and how learners of Japanese can expand
their vocabulary knowledge from effective vocabulary
instruction in tandem with reading in the classroom are
needed.
This study addresses the issue of whether
intermediate learners of Japanese incidentally acquire
and retain unknown vocabulary as a result of extensive
reading and further examines whether explicit
vocabulary instruction in conjunction with reading for
meaning enhances vocabulary learning. 75 learners of
Japanese as a foreign language at a U.S. university
were randomly assigned to three groups (Reading plus
Vocabulary Instruction [RPV], Reading Alone [RA], and
control) for learning unfamiliar words in the authentic
Japanese texts. The subjects' progress in the use of
the target words was measured by receptive and
productive tasks, using a pretest and two posttests
design. Results indicate that both the RPV and RA
treatment groups significantly improved after the
instruction, but the gain scores of the RPV group were
significantly larger than those of the RA group.
Furthermore, the results of the delayed posttest
indicate that both experimental groups retained their
knowledge of the target words over the five-week period
after instruction.
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