Reading a single authentic novel yields incidental vocabulary gains, with more gains for words occurring more than five times¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 2011 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Spanish EFL students reading 'Things Fall Apart' acquired an average of 9.39 (28%) of 34 target words incidentally, with greater gains on words occurring more than five times in the novel. → Ponniah 2011

Evidence¶

Ponniah 2011¶

Ponniah, R. J. (2011). The Effectiveness of the Comprehension Hypothesis: A Review on the Current Research on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition. i-manager's Journal on English Language Teaching, 1(2), April-June 2011. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1071042 doi:10.26634/jelt.1.2.1452

q2 · i? · review · r1

Review reports Sánchez and Schmitt (2010): 20 Spanish EFL students read the authentic novel 'Things Fall Apart'; vocabulary of Ibo words measured across spelling recognition, word class recall, meaning recall and meaning recognition. Mean gain 9.39 words (28% of 34 targets).

"The subjects acquired an average of 9.39 (28%) words out of the 34 target words, with more gains on the words that occurred more than five times in the novel."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Adult ESL students who read a short story could use incidentally acquired words in sentences, while students who learned word meanings in isolation could not — related
• Incidental vocabulary exposure produces reliable learning, but learners pick up only a small share of the unknown words they meet — a broader claim this one bears on
• Participants incidentally acquired an average of 3.19 of 20 target words after reading two passages — related
• Reading proficiency level moderates incidental vocabulary gains: higher-proficiency readers gained more, consistent with i+1 — related
• Vocabulary Knowledge Grows Incrementally With Repeated Encounters In Varied Contexts — a broader claim this one bears on
• L2 learners pick up vocabulary incidentally from meaning-focused input, with reading the most-studied mode and listening yielding similar proportions of words learned — a broader claim this one bears on
• Meaning-focused exposure to spoken L2 input yields large vocabulary gains (g = 1.05) in incidental word learning — related
• Viewing a single full-length L2 TV program results in incidental vocabulary learning at the level of meaning recall and meaning recognition — related
• Incidental vocabulary learning through viewing TV was affected by frequency of occurrence, prior vocabulary knowledge, and cognateness — related