The effects of context on incidental vocabulary learning

By Stuart Webb. Reading in a Foreign Language, 2008

319 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Japanese university students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) encountered 10 target words in 3 sets of 10 short contexts that were rated on the amount of information available to infer the target words’ meanings. One group of learners met the target words in contexts rated more highly than the contexts read by the other group. A surprise vocabulary test that measured recall of form, recognition of form, recall of meaning, and recognition of meaning was administered after the treatments. The results showed that the group that read the contexts containing more contextual clues had significantly higher scores on both tests of meaning. The findings indicate that the quality of the context rather than the number of encounters with target words may have a greater effect on gaining knowledge of meaning. Conversely, it is the number of encounters that will have a greater effect on knowledge of form.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Language and Linguistics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/10b47af9fafc38b638ce1c18cb2d4e4890ac9e19

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Artificial Intelligence

1. E. Peters
2. Irina Elgort
3. Stuart Webb
4. A. Chang
5. Eve Kagimoto
6. Niousha Pavia
7. Farahnaz Faez
8. Michaël A. Stevens

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

1. E. Peters
2. Stuart Webb
3. N. Schmitt
4. Irina Elgort
5. A. Chang
6. Marc Brysbaert
7. Farahnaz Faez
8. Niousha Pavia

In Language and Linguistics

1. E. Peters
2. Stuart Webb
3. Irina Elgort
4. A. Chang
5. Eve Kagimoto
6. Chun-Ta Chen
7. John Truscott
8. Farahnaz Faez

Citations in the corpus

• The effects of repetition and time of post-test administration on EFL learners’ form recall of single words and collocations (2014, background): “Learners’ productive vocabulary size tends to be smaller than their receptive vocabulary size (Laufer & Paribakht, 1998; Webb, 2008a).”
• The Effects of Repetition on Incidental Vocabulary Learning: A Meta‐Analysis of Correlational Studies (2019, unknown): “…methodological or treatment variations (e.g., spaced vs. massed treatment conditions, or use of nonwords vs. real words) (Elgort et al., 2018; Elgort & Warren, 2014; Malone, 2018; Paribakht & Wesche, 1999; Peters, Heynen, & Puimège, 2016; Peters & Webb, 2018; Webb, 2008, 2014; Webb & Chang, 2015).”
• HOW DOES PRIOR WORD KNOWLEDGE AFFECT VOCABULARY LEARNING PROGRESS IN AN EXTENSIVE READING PROGRAM? (2015, background): “…et al., 1998 ), background knowledge (Pulido, 2004 ), the amount of information that could be used to derive the meanings of the target words (Webb, 2008 ), and the frequency of occurrence of the words in the text (e.g., Horst et al., 1998 ; Pigada & Schmitt, 2006 ; Waring & Takaki, 2003 ;…”
• The effects of word exposure frequency and elaboration of word processing on incidental L2 vocabulary acquisition through reading (2012, background): “How many contextual clues (Webb, 2008) are there, if any?”
• INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY LEARNING THROUGH LISTENING TO SONGS (2019, background): “Research suggests that students have a better chance of learning new vocabulary items from more informative contexts (Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985; Webb, 2008).”
• The Effects of Repetition and L1 Lexicalization on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition (2010, background): “…as results are presumably influenced by a number of mediating variables, including learners’ proficiency level (Zahar et al. 2001; Tekmen and Daloglu 2006), context informativeness (Nagy et al. 1987; Shu et al. 1995; Webb 2007, 2008), and word properties (Nagy et al. 1987; Shu et al. 1995).”
• The Effects of Vocabulary Learning on Collocation and Meaning. (2009, background): “Aside from a handful of studies conducted on the multiple aspects of word knowledge (Schmitt, 1998, 1999; Schmitt & Meara, 1997; Webb, 2005, 2007a, 2007b, 2008), there is little research focused on issues such as the rate of acquisition of different aspects, to what extent they can be learned…”
• CONTEXTUAL WORD LEARNING DURING READING IN A SECOND LANGUAGE (2017, background): “Better learning of meaning is observed when a novel word is encountered in supportive contexts that make correct meaning inferences more likely, compared to neutral or misleading contexts (Batterink & Neville, 2011; Borovsky, Elman, & Kutas, 2012; Frishkoff, Perfetti, & Collins-Thompson, 2011; Mestr”
• Incidental Vocabulary Learning in Second Language Acquisition: A Literature Review (2015, background): “However, the type of context seems to have an effect on the correct interpretation of lexical meaning, since it may lead learners to correctly or incorrectly infer the meaning of words (Webb, 2008).”
• Second language vocabulary learning through extensive reading with audio support: How do frequency and distribution of occurrence affect learning? (2015, background): “…that may also affect incidental vocabulary learning are proficiency (Zahar, Cobb, & Spada, 2001), illustrations in text (Horst, Cobb, & Meara, 1998), background knowledge (Pulido, 2004), and the amount of information present in the context that can be used to infer word meaning (Webb, 2008).”