In the late 1980s Batia Laufer worked with teachers who believed that to understand a text it was enough to understand 80% of the text's word tokens. In response, Laufer set out to calculate the minimal text coverage, i.e., percentage of running words in a text the reader should understand to comprehend it reasonably well. In 1992, she explored…

Vocabulary is an essential factor in English language learning. The competency in vocabulary acquisition enables learners to develop their language skills, especially, reading skill. Presently, with the advent of technology, teaching media with visual aid is used worldwide for media-assisted language learning. The study aimed to develop, implement…

The present study examined two input modification techniques, namely lexical elaboration (LE) and typographical enhancement (TE), and the combination of these two (LE & TE) to seek the difference among them as far as incidental vocabulary learning through reading is concerned. Ninety six Iranian EFL students whose reading proficiency was at…

This study is the first to compare objective and subjective measures of explicit and implicit knowledge under learning from incidental exposure. An experiment was conducted, during which L1 English speakers were trained on a semiartificial language, "Japlish." A measure of explicit knowledge and a recently proposed measure of implicit…

A considerable body of research has investigated the effectiveness of extensive reading on incidental vocabulary acquisition in second language (L2) learners. However, we still know very little about the relationship between extensive reading and vocabulary development among Saudi learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) where language…

There is limited research on the effectiveness of aural versus audiovisual input in incidental second language vocabulary learning (IVL). The current study aims to determine which mode of input, viewing or listening, is more conducive to IVL, and if the level of visual aid for the words leads to a significant difference in word gains. English…

This meta-analysis aimed to clarify the complex relationship between repetition and second language (L2) incidental vocabulary learning by meta-analyzing primary studies reporting correlation coefficients between the number of encounters and vocabulary learning. We synthesized and quantitatively analyzed 45 effect sizes from 26 studies (N = 1,918)…

The study investigated the effect of marginal glossing and frequency of occurrence on the incidental learning of six aspects of vocabulary knowledge through reading in the second language (L2) Chinese. Participants were 30 intermediate L2 Chinese learners in an American public university. The MACOVA tests indicated that the treatment group who…

Research has begun to demonstrate that L2 words can be learned incidentally through watching audiovisual materials. Although there are a large number of studies that have investigated incidental vocabulary learning through reading a single text, there are no studies that have explored incidental vocabulary learning through viewing a single…

While most studies that explored children's incidental literacy acquisition focused on input from written text, this quantitative-qualitative study investigated the effects of using audio-visual input through close-captioned Aesop's Fables cartoons from PinkFong and Task-Induced Involvement (n=6 eight-year old pupils). Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test…

The study examined the predictions of regulatory fit theory (Higgins, 2000) in relation to task-based incidental vocabulary learning. A total of 189 English as a second language learners completed a vocabulary pretest, a regulatory focus questionnaire, an integrated reading/writing task, and finally an unannounced vocabulary posttest. The…

Morphological analysis and incidental learning are two vocabulary learning strategies that language learners may use in order to acquire the meanings of new words. To date, however, few studies have compared the effectiveness of these two strategies. Hence, the current study was carried out to compare the effect of morphological analysis and…

This article examines visiting Chinese undergraduate students' engagement with the linguistic landscape (LL) in the city of Edinburgh as they participated in a University summer school. A pedagogical approach was taken involving capturing LL on display during a 'camera safari'; reflecting on questions through dialogic discussion and in writing and…

The article discusses an experiment that researched the intentional vs incidental ESP vocabulary uptake in two university groups of third year political science students and addresses the implications of using an authentic audiovisual material as an input text for an ESP course. The procedure of intentional vocabulary learning involved…

This article examines the influence of different reading conditions (i.e. reading only and reading with first language marginal glosses), number of word encounters (one, three, and seven) while reading, and combinations of these two variables on new word retention. This study considered a total of six possible combinations. Six groups of Chinese…