Teaching and Learning Vocabulary in a Second Language: Past, Present, and Future Directions

Abstract

In this article I shall offer an overview of the various developments that have taken place during the last twenty years in the area of vocabulary research within the field of second language education. My goal is not to give a detailed or exhaustive account but rather to characterize the most salient trends in order, on the one hand, to highlight the progress that has been made so far and, on the other, to suggest possible directions for the future. In the first two sections of the article I will show how, from being the "poor relation" of language teaching in the 1960s and 1970s, vocabulary has moved during the 1980s into the "guest of honor" position. As for the 1990s, while there is no doubt that great strides have been made, I am also convinced that there are still great challenges ahead for those who do research in the area of vocabulary. I will conclude the article by suggesting precisely one such challenge.