Review article: Instructed second language vocabulary learning

By N. Schmitt. 2008

1,259 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article overviews current research on second language vocabulary learning. It concludes that a large vocabulary is necessary to function in English: 8000—9000 word families for reading, and perhaps as many as 5000—7000 families for oral discourse. In addition, a number of word knowledge aspects need to be learned about each lexical item. Taken together, this amounts to a substantial lexical learning challenge, one which many/most learners fail to meet. To facilitate adequate vocabulary learning, four vocabulary learning partners (students, teachers, materials writers, and researchers) need to contribute to the learning process. Vocabulary learning programs need to include both an explicit, intentional learning component and a component based around maximizing exposure and incidental learning. The four learning strands (meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development) suggested by Nation (2001) provide a structure by which to integrate intentional and incidental vocabulary learning. The overriding principle for maximizing vocabulary learning is to increase the amount of engagement learners have with lexical items. All four learning partners need to acknowledge the incremental nature of vocabulary learning, and to develop learning programs which are principled, long-term, and which recognize the richness and scope of the lexical knowledge that needs to be mastered.

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

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e37d5af0ea65c8b92b946d90b78141a65164189f

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. N. Schmitt
3. Stuart Webb
4. Kazuya Saito
5. Irina Elgort
6. Junyu Cheng
7. J. Matthews
8. F. Boers

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

1. N. Schmitt
2. E. Peters
3. Kazuya Saito
4. Stuart Webb
5. Masatoshi Sato
6. C. Muñoz
7. Junyu Cheng
8. J. Matthews

In Language and Linguistics

1. Kazuya Saito
2. N. Schmitt
3. E. Peters
4. Stuart Webb
5. Masatoshi Sato
6. P. Trofimovich
7. T. Isaacs
8. C. Muñoz

Citations in the corpus

• Narrow Viewing: The Vocabulary in Related Television Programs (2011, background): “'s (1994) study (over twice as many word families and word types in the unrelated academic texts) or as large as in Schmitt and Carter's (2000) study (7.”
• The effects of repetition and time of post-test administration on EFL learners’ form recall of single words and collocations (2014, background): “Although non-communicative vocabulary activities have lost popularity in the past decades (mostly in favor of communicative or taskbased activities), research has shown that explicit, (partly) decontextualized vocabulary exercises not only foster vocabulary learning but that the learning gains tend ”
• How Many Words Do We Know? Practical Estimates of Vocabulary Size Dependent on Word Definition, the Degree of Language Input and the Participant’s Age (2016, background): “The difference between receptive and productive word knowledge increases as the words become less frequent/familiar (Laufer and Goldstein, 2004; Schmitt, 2008; Shin et al., 2011).”
• Extensive viewing of captioned and subtitled TV series: a study of L2 vocabulary learning by adolescents (2019, background): “Research has shown that extensive reading outside the classroom can foster vocabulary acquisition (Nation 2015; Schmitt 2008), but its impact remains limited: the typical learner does not read sufficiently to encounter the same words frequently enough to avoid forgetting them (Laufer 2005); and…”
• The Word Part Levels Test (2017, background): “Knowledge of affix meaning is essential because the first step in vocabulary learning is to establish form–meaning relationships (e.g. Nation, 2001; Schmitt, 2008).”
• Fluency in reading—Thirty-five years later (2010, background): “…the benefits of extensive reading on vocabulary growth have also indicated that students learn 5–15% of new words from incidental exposure to these words while reading, and this percentage increases with increasing numbers of repeated exposures to words (Schmitt, 2008; Stahl & Nagy, 2006).”
• Understanding vocabulary acquisition, instruction, and assessment: A research agenda (2019, background): “…opportunities for elaborating word knowledge • provide opportunities for developing fluency with known vocabulary • experiment with guessing from context In Schmitt (2008), I added another six points, including: • Learners need large vocabularies to successfully use a second language, and so high…”
• Adding more fuel to the fire: An eye-tracking study of idiom processing by native and non-native speakers (2011, background): “Researchers agree that a fundamental task in second language vocabulary acquisition is building connections between a form and meaning (Van Patten et al., 2004; Schmitt, 2008).”
• Digital game-based vocabulary learning: where are we and where are we going? (2019, background): “…in repeated exposures to target vocabulary, are considered very effective for successful learning because they involve factors such as noticing, retrieval and generative use, which are widely acknowledged as facilitative for effective retention of new words (Nation, 2001; Schmitt, 2000, 2008).”
• Issues in Second Language Listening Comprehension and the Pedagogical Implications (2012, background): “To support this, Schmitt (2008) suggests that establishing the meaning-form link is essential for vocabulary instruction, and once this initial meaning-form link is established, it is crucial to consolidate it with repeated exposures and it is best learned by being exposed to the lexical item many t”
• INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY ACQUISITION THROUGH VIEWING L2 TELEVISION AND FACTORS THAT AFFECT LEARNING (2018, background): “Therefore, it is not surprising that researchers have advocated the potential of extensive reading to boost learners’ vocabulary knowledge (Nation, 2015; Schmitt, 2008).”
• The relationship between three measures of L2 vocabulary knowledge and L2 listening and reading (2018, background): “Expanding the depth or quality of word knowledge will enable a learner to apply their word knowledge in a broader variety of contexts and facilitate skilled target language use (Schmitt, 2008).”
• Incidental vocabulary learning in a natural reading context: an eye-tracking study (2017, background): “This view aligns well with theoretical frameworks that emphasize the benefits of active engagement for learning (Schmitt, 2008), including the noticing hypothesis (Schmidt, 1990) and, for vocabulary, the involvement load hypothesis (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001).”
• Adult learners’ retention of collocations from exposure (2010, background): “Research from reading indicates that new words need to be seen around 8–10 times in order to be learned (Schmitt, 2008), and it would be surprising if collocation knowledge could be acquired in any fewer exposures.”
• Vocabulary size and the skills of listening, reading and writing (2008, background): “As pointed out by Schmitt (2008), this kind of vocabulary size is what L2 learners need to be striving for if they wish to read a wide variety of texts without serious hindrance by unknown vocabulary.”