Revisiting Word Exposure Frequency and Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

Abstract

Abstract-Incidental vocabulary acquisition (IVA) has long been an important, yet controversial topic in second language acquisition. Word exposure frequency is one of the key factors that influence IVA. Various studies have been conducted to explore exposure frequency in relation to IVA, and have not yet reached an agreement on the effect and the optimal exposure frequency. The exploration of the existing studies reveals the reasons for the conflicting results, which include insufficient reading amount, simplification of test content and lack of consideration of learners' lexical competence. To clear up the blurred picture and better understand the nature of word exposure frequency effect, future researches can be carried out in terms of research areas and methods. In terms of research areas, studies can be designed to test different aspects of word knowledge, distinguish the effect of global word frequency and local word frequency, and investigate such mediating effects as perceptual salience, and skill levels. Methodologically, the test format needs to be diversified to avoid pure multiple choice tests. In addition, more post-tests can be conducted, and qualitative and longitudinal studies should be employed as complementary to the popular quantitative ones.Index Terms-word exposure frequency, incidental vocabulary acquisition, reading

Lexical Access Patterns of Second Language Speakers of English

“…The findings of this study are consistent with previous studies which stated that performance is better for high frequency words than low frequency ones because the representations of high frequency words in long-term memory are either more accessible or more specified than those of low frequency words (Mandler, 1980;Scarborough, Cortese & Scarborough, 1977). The observation made on participants' lexical access also proved that the high frequency words are accessed faster than their low frequency counterparts (Forster & Chambers, 1973;Howes & Solomon, 1951;Zhu, 2015). The more frequently a lexical item is used, the more quickly it is recognized.…”