What is it about?
How many times do you need to see a new word before learning something about it? Can listening while you read help you to learn something about the new words you see while reading? This study looks at how these issues, along with your memory skills, can affect new word learning.
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Why is it important?
Vocabulary is a central aspect of learning a new language, and many other studies have looked into it. This study is important in that we control the number of encounters with a word, whether audio can help reading, and how memory skills affect learning when participants were focused on the meaning of the readings. We found that some new word learning happened even at the level of two encounters with a new word, listening facilitated new word learning, and working memory influenced how much learning happened. The implications for language classes are especially important, in that audio and reading materials can easily be combined.
Perspectives
I'm hopeful that this article makes a meaningful contribution to the field, not so much in arguing about the merits of incidental learning over other types of learning, but more so in how word learning happens and develops over time. I'm also hopeful that this cross-sectional study will be a starting point for further and more longitudinal designs looking at the benefits of phonological mapping in learning new words visually.
Jonathan Malone
University System of Maryland
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY LEARNING IN SLA, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, February 2018, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0272263117000341.
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