‘Incidental + Intentional’ vs ‘Intentional + Incidental’ Vocabulary Learning: Which is More Effective?

Ekaterina Sinyashina

doi:10.5209/cjes.66685

Abstract

This study compares the effectiveness of two combinations of new vocabulary learning techniques: ‘incidental + intentional’ and ‘intentional + incidental’. For the incidental part, the participants viewed 3 hours of captioned authentic videos, whereas for the intentional one they were asked to do a set of tasks with the target vocabulary at home. Three aspects of the target words were tested: form recognition, meaning recall and written use in a sentence. The overall scores revealed better performance of the ‘incidental + intentional’ condition in the three tests. Nevertheless, a variety of scores in the sample for the three aspects of word knowledge and the lack of statistical evidence did not allow us to conclude with certainty which combination is more or less effective for new vocabulary learning.

Highlights

IntroductionMany scholars highlight the importance of intentional learning and teaching when target language (TL) learners want to achieve high results in new lexis acquisition (see, for example, Nation 2004, Marzano 2005, Sweller, Kirschner & Clark 2006, Sonbul & Schmitt 2010, Subon 2016, etc.)
The present study compares the sequence in which incidental and intentional learning should be combined in order to allow target language (TL) learners to achieve the best results in new vocabulary learning
The aim of this experiment was to compare the effectiveness of two combinations of new vocabulary learning techniques: ‘incidental + intentional’ and ‘intentional + incidental’

Summary

Introduction

Many scholars highlight the importance of intentional learning and teaching when target language (TL) learners want to achieve high results in new lexis acquisition (see, for example, Nation 2004, Marzano 2005, Sweller, Kirschner & Clark 2006, Sonbul & Schmitt 2010, Subon 2016, etc.). Direct teaching techniques, such as completing vocabulary tasks and activities either in a classroom or at home, may facilitate the initial meeting of a new word and its recycling (Schmitt 2007, Jack 2015).

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion