Reading is an activity in which both researchers and students invest immense time and energy. However, reading is disregarded as a research method and generally assigned a marginal position as a mere supplement to empirical hands-on methods. In this article we argue that reading should be recognized as a method of inquiry. Based on qualitative…

Using a study of 30 Danish freshman college students' vocabularies as a springboard, this paper explores and discusses a number of current assumptions about vocabularies in the mother tongue and in foreign language pedagogics. The paper contends that it is logical to assume that vocabularies in reading are fluid and depend on the text read, on the…