An Empirical Investigation of Incidental Vocabulary Learning in Relation to Word Repetition and L1 Lexicalization

Abstract

ABSTRACT The current study aims to investigate whether the increasing word exposures, and one of the inter-lexical factors, L1 lexicalization, would have any impact on L2 incidental vocabulary learning through reading. The 3 research questions are raised as the following: 1. Does word repetition increase L2 learners’ word knowledge receptively and productively through incidental reading? 2. Do English words that are not lexicalized in learners’ L1 cause any learning difficulty in L2 vocabulary learning? In addition, how does the increasing number of word exposures contribute to the learning of both lexicalized (L) and nonlexicalized (NL) words, especially in meaning? 3. To what extent do learners retain previously-acquired word knowledge through the reinforcement of multiple word exposures in reading? Does L1 lexicalization affect the retention of word knowledge? The present investigation was conducted based on Webb (2007) and Paribakht’s (2005) findings. The experiment was administrated following three phases: the reading comprehension task, followed by an immediate posttest measuring learners’ aspects of acquired word knowledge in receptive and productive ways, and a delayed posttest taking place 2 weeks after the immediate posttest. The first phase of the experiment started with the reading comprehension task, in which 72 EFL Chinese-speaking subjects were randomly assigned to 3 treatment groups based on the number of word exposures in texts. Each group encountered 10 English target words a different number of exposures (1, 3, and 7 times) within a series of reading materials. Immediately after the reading comprehension task, subjects were given the first posttest involving a reading comprehension test, and 7 vocabulary tests in which various types of word knowledge were separately measured. Finally, a delayed posttest with only 7 vocabulary tests involved was carried out 2 weeks later. The main findings of the current study show that, first, increasing number of word exposures in reading does help learners develop aspects of word knowledge. Compared to Webb’s (2007) study, the results also reveal that in this study learners’ lexical growth by virtue of word repetition did not increase as rapidly as that of Webb’s. Such difference might be attributed to the use of either invented words or real words as target words, as well as the way these target words are presented in context. Secondly, the effect of L1 lexicalization indeed causes vocabulary learning difficulty from reading, especially for the inferencing of word meaning. In other words, L2 words that are not lexicalized in learners’ L1 system do have certain impact on the gains of word meaning, and word repetition up to 7 times does not contribute to the learning of nonlexicalized word, especially in meaning aspect. In addition, one of the nonlexicalized words, troubadour, that functions as the topic-related word was accidentally found relatively easier to be gained in various aspects of word knowledge, and moreover, the limited set of collocates for NL words may help learners gain the syntactic knowledge faster than L words. Finally, concerning learners’ retention of acquired word knowledge in the main task, word repetition was also found effective in retaining various types of word knowledge. Based on the findings this study presents, limitations of the current research, suggestions for future studies, and pedagogical implications are thus considered.