Importance Of Vocabulary Learning

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2.1. Introduction This chapter presents the related studies about incidental and. intentional vocabulary learning through extensive reading. There will be a brief look at the incidental vs. intentional vocabulary learning. After that, the impotence of extensive reading on vocabulary in second language learning will be summarized. Finally, the previous studies relevant to the current study will be reviewed. 2.2. Importance of vocabulary learning Vocabulary is central to English language teaching and and of critical importance to EFL learners because without sufficient vocabulary students cannot understand others or express their own thoughts and ideas. According to Lynch (1996), acquiring vocabulary is assumed as a crucial process in learning…show more content…
Shmidth (1990) points out that incidental learning is certainly passive in that it can occur when the focus of attention is on some relevant features of input. However, he believes that since incidental learning is useful in task-based language, pedagogy is still a fruitful area of investigation. He further notes that there is an argument that maintains what is learned—whether incidentally or intentionally—is what is noticed (Erricson & Simon, 1985). A number of studies over the years have been conducted in the field concerning vocabulary learning approaches. Huckin and Coady (1999) examined the role of incidental and intentional vocabulary acquisition. They conclude that incidental vocabulary learning is not completely incidental in that learners pay at least some attention to individual words. Schmidt (1994) maintains, intentional learning requires focal attention to be deliberately rested on the linguistic code (i.e. on form or form-meaning connections), incidental learning requires focal attention to be placed on meaning (i.e. message content) but allows peripheral attention to be drawn to…show more content…
Their study shows that incidental acquisition of new lexical knowledge through reading of thematically related texts; therefore, vocabulary knowledge may be obtained as a by-product of reading comprehension. Hulstijn (2006) makes a distinction between intentional and incidental learning as intentional learning refers to the learning mode in which participants are informed, prior to their engagement in a learning task, that they will be tested afterward on their retention of a particular type of information. Incidental learning refers to the mode in which participants are not forewarned of an upcoming retention test for a particular type of information. Rott (1999) views the effect of frequency with which words occur in a reading text and the role of reading as an input resource in vocabulary acquisition. She investigates whether intermediate learners incidentally acquire and retain unfamiliar words by reading a text. The result of the study indicates that, regarding retention measures on productive vocabulary knowledge, only half of the subjects show a significant rate of retention, and on receptive knowledge, all but one experimental group keeps vocabularies over four

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