The Effects of Repetition and LI Lexicalization on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

摘要

This study of incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading, involving 72 freshmen at two Asian universities, investigated (i) the effect of repeated encounters with target words on the development of seven aspects of word knowledge, and (ii) the effect of LI lexicalization on the acquisition of meaning-does the absence of an LI translation equivalent make acquisition of a word's meaning especially difficult? Seven measures were used, immedi ately after the treatment and again after a two-week delay. The design was based on that of Webb (2007) but emphasized ecological validity over control, pre senting genuine words in meaningful reading passages and thus complementing Webb's more tightly controlled experiment. Results for repetition largely sup ported his findings while suggesting that the nature of his study led to an over estimate of learning. Knowledge of orthography, part of speech, and meaning showed different patterns of development with increasing encounters. On the immediate posttest, repetition affected productive knowledge somewhat more than receptive, consistent with Webb's findings, but this relation reversed on the delayed posttest. For LI lexicalization, non-lexicalized words caused great difficulty.