This longitudinal study investigates the effect of mode of reading on the incidental learning of collocations and factors that affect learning. One hundred Vietnamese pre-intermediate learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) were assigned to either an experimental group or a control group (no treatment). In 9 weeks, the experimental group…

Research suggests that prediction is important for language comprehension and learning. Accordingly, it becomes crucial to understand factors that can influence prediction. In this regard, speakers' prior linguistic experience such as parsing bias has been claimed to affect prediction in the error-based learning account. To test this claim, the…

The present study explores the incidental learning of formulaic sequences (FS) from audio-visual input and factors affecting the learning of FS. A pretest-posttest, within-participant design was adopted. English-as-a-foreign-language learners (L1 = Dutch; n = 42) watched a one-hour English-language documentary without subtitles. Learning gains…

Learning the writing skill is a challenging task for second or foreign language learners. This difficulty stems from the fact that students required multiple skills and knowledge while writing. They need, for example, enough vocabulary inventory, grammar knowledge, and other discourse strategies to organize the text. Students are also in need for…

This paper reports results from two studies conducted to examine word learning among preschool children in group book reading while we developed a scalable method of teaching words during book reading. We sought to identify factors that fostered both depth and breadth of learning by varying the type of information children heard about words while…

Theoretical models of word recognition suggest that knowing what a word means makes it easier to learn how to decode it. We tested this hypothesis with at-risk young students, a group that often responds poorly to conventional decoding instruction in which word meaning is not addressed systematically. A total of 53 first graders received explicit…

Sixty English as a foreign language learners were divided into high-, intermediate-, and low-level groups based on their scores on pretests of target vocabulary and Vocabulary Levels Test scores. The participants read 10 Level 1 and 10 Level 2 graded readers over 37 weeks during two terms. Two sets of 100 target words were chosen from each set of…

This study used a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design at one-week intervals to determine the extent to which written, audio, and audiovisual L2 input contributed to incidental vocabulary learning. Seventy-six university students learning EFL in China were randomly assigned to four groups. Each group was presented with the input from the same…

Television is considered an important source of comprehensible input for second language learners of English and there is some evidence that L2 words can be learned incidentally by watching television. Few studies have looked at the role of TV viewing for learning formulaic sequences, despite the ubiquity of formulaic sequences in spoken English,…

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of an instructional program on vocational educational students' proficiency of vocational educational terms in English. The study sample consisted of 60 male and female students from Al-Balqa'a Applied University, Jordan. Moreover, the study investigated the effect the students' gender and…

Experience with a second language (L2) has been shown to facilitate learning of a third or subsequent language (L3) (Sanz 2000). However, little is known about how much L2 experience is needed before benefits for L3 development emerge, or about whether effects depend on type of L3 instruction. We report two experiments investigating initial…

According to different authors, computer games not only teach contents and skills, but also do so in a more efficient manner, allowing long-lasting learning. However, there is still little consensus on this matter as different studies put their educational benefits into question, especially when used without instructional support. An empirical…

The present study investigates the effects of two different vocabulary learning conditions in digital reading environments equipped with electronic textual glossing. The first condition presents the concordance lines of a target lexical item, thereby making learners infer its meaning by reading the referenced sentences. The second condition…

In response to concerns regarding effects of hyperlinked annotation on reading comprehension, this study was undertaken to compare hyperlinked annotation with student highlighting of unknown/difficult words. An online highlighting tool was used to help students reflect their prior vocabulary in a hyperlink-based annotated passage. Highlighting…

Incidental word learning is influenced by context, task, and reader characteristics. The present study aimed to determine the contribution and interactions of these factors for fifth-grade students. The focus was on contextual differences: words' meanings are inferred from local or global contexts. This effect was tested as a function of task: gap…