This study investigates the effects of multilingualism and the degree of proficiency in different languages on vocabulary knowledge among Spanish language learners. Participants completed a 160-word meaning recall test designed to measure their knowledge of the 8,000 most frequent Spanish words and a self-assessment questionnaire on their…

This article explores how leading textbook authors select and instruct vocabulary in beginner and intermediate Chinese textbooks used in the United States. Leading textbook authors were approached; subsequently; four authors completed interviews with pre-designed questions. Grounded theory methodology was used to analyse the interviews, and their…

Choosing relevant vocabulary to teach in ESL composition courses can be a difficult task for instructors. They often rely on intuition rather than empirical methods for vocabulary selection. This paper presents two case studies where corpora were used either to select vocabulary items for instruction or to scaffold student learning of vocabulary…

Toddlers learn more about the world from picture books with photographs instead of drawings, but commercial books often have tactile features such as flaps that may counterintuitively hinder learning. This study tested how lift-the-flap features in a commercial picture book of first words affected 2-year-olds' (N = 32) learning of a new word for…

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become the focus of Foreign Language (FL) research within the last decades. CLIL provides a more complete, naturalistic, and meaningful context to FL learning, which has proven to bring many benefits to learners, such as a higher motivation and promotion of creativity, and better results in…

The frequency of word exposure in teaching materials, along with corrective feedback, has often been identified as a powerful variable in the learning of vocabulary in a foreign language. The effect of the number of times an action is presented as accurate in digital game-based language learning scenarios (i.e., knowledge of correct response [KCR]…

Vocabulary knowledge plays a primary role in the ability to communicate in a second/foreign language. The present study examined how different input or output modalities combined with audiovisual input provided by TED-ED videos could foster vocabulary learning. In doing so, some written tasks and exercises were used to facilitate the process.…

Vocabulary size measures serve important functions, not only with respect to placing learners at appropriate levels on language courses but also with a view to examining the progress of learners. One of the widely reported formats suitable for these purposes is the Yes/No vocabulary test. The primary aim of this study was to introduce and provide…

This study investigated the learnability of multiple word knowledge aspects and the relationship between the word knowledge aspects. A total of 261 Thai high school students were measured on receptive and productive word knowledge aspects: word parts, the form-meaning link, and collocations. The current findings indicated that word parts are…

The purposes of this study were to: (1) build an appropriate model for predicting primary schoolchildren's English vocabulary knowledge; (2) examine whether the developed model applies to new data; and (3) discuss how to apply the model to L2 vocabulary instruction. More specifically, the study asked third- and fourth-grade public primary school…

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…

This non-experimental study gauged the English lexical preferences of 545 native Japanese university students. Specifically, this univariate design collated the frequency of English loanword selection in preference to non-borrowed lexical items. A major focus of the study design was instrument validity, addressing the flaws of two previous studies…

Previous studies have shown that intentional learning through explicit instruction is effective for the acquisition of collocations in a second language (L2) (e.g. Peters, 2014, 2015), but relatively little is known about the effectiveness of incidental approaches for the acquisition of L2 collocations. The present study examined the incidental…

Intervention exercises have tended to be limited to restricted controlled output in studies related to second language (L2) learners' acquisition of written academic formulaic sequences (FSs), while measurement of use has been drawn from freer output (AlHassan & Wood, 2015; Jones & Haywood, 2004; Peters & Pauwels, 2015). The current…

A number of studies have demonstrated that second/foreign language learners can acquire vocabulary from reading. This study was designed to examine whether advanced EFL learners can acquire vocabulary incidentally from reading an authentic text. Eighteen first year English major students read and listened to the first eight chapters of Pride and…