The article is devoted to identifying the potential of occasionalisms in creating motivation for reading the press among students studying English. Brevity, authenticity, and accessibility are named as the advantages of newspaper articles over texts of other styles in teaching a foreign language. Among the difficulties characterizing the texts of this style, specific vocabulary and grammatical constructions, as well as culture specific concepts, clichés, etc. are identified. Factors that have displaced conscious habit of regular reading of the press are the following: growing volume of information and pace of life, lack of time. As an incentive to create motivation for reading, we consider as the most efficient the use of the element of gamification and creating connection between positive emotional response in students and reading a newspaper. We presume another factor which provides massive opportunities in the field of education as it is and in working out a conscious habit of reading newspapers regularly is the availability of the Internet resources and total digitalization. The article describes the experiment devoted to the formation of interest in reading newspaper articles in students. As a result of the experiment, it was revealed that decoding of occasional vocabulary creates a certain game element in educational process and provides necessary positive emotional response and can be used to form students' motivation to read newspaper articles.