Abstract
The study explored the possible effects of exposure frequency on implicit acquisition of culturally-loaded words. In the context of the study, culturally-loaded words were defined as those L2 words which had significantly-different cultural connotations with respect to learners' first language (and culture). Within a quasi-experimental research design, 75 adult EFL learners took part in the study. Their gains in three culture-related aspects of lexical knowledge, through implicit exposure to target words, were measured. The findings confirmed that exposure frequency had a positive effect on vocabulary knowledge as a continuum of one to seven encounters could tell. In addition, it was revealed that receptive knowledge of meaning and form (RMF) as well as receptive knowledge of associations (RA) responded faster to implicit exposure than productive knowledge of associations (PA). Furthermore, whereas gains in vocabulary knowledge for RMF and RA were significant even after three encounters, for this latter subknowledge, at least seven encounters were needed to reach significant results.
Highlights
1.1 Vocabulary KnowledgeVocabulary knowledge plays a significant role in both first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition
It was revealed that receptive knowledge of meaning and form (RMF) as well as receptive knowledge of associations (RA) responded faster to implicit exposure than productive knowledge of associations (PA)
The Target Words (TWs) were selected from the corpus of culturally-loaded words collected by Heidari-Shahreza, Moinzadeh and Barati (2014b). The rationale behind this selection was that the present study focused on the same TWs and participants
Summary
1.1 Vocabulary KnowledgeVocabulary knowledge (or lexical knowledge) plays a significant role in both first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition. Research on vocabulary knowledge in general and the acquisition, development and retention of L2 (or foreign) vocabulary in particular, has come to the fore recently (see for example, Broady, 2008; Meara, 2012). Nation (2001) believes that vocabulary knowledge incorporates three macro levels of form, meaning and use, which each consists of a number of micro dimensions to cover receptive and productive aspects of knowing words. In general, it can be said that lexical knowledge as a multidimensional set of interrelated subknowledges entails knowing primary meaning(s) of a word, its appropriate uses in authentic contexts, its grammatical and morphological properties and the associations a word has with other L2 words (Brown, 2011)
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