The effect of reading only, reading and comprehension, and sentence writing in lexical learning in a foreign language:some preliminary results

Abstract

The present paper investigates the effectiveness of three different methods of incidental vocabulary acquisition in a foreign language. Participants were randomly assigned to a reading only group, to a group assigned a glossed text reading with comprehension questions from the target words, and to a sentence writing group from words in a bilingual list. Results revealed that participants who wrote the sentences with the target words from a bilingual list managed to recall more words productively and receptively immediately and after three weeks. However, results are only significant for immediate testing but not for delayed testing. The least effective method is the reading only. From these results, we argue that activities that present vocabulary in a decontextualized way with focus on the relationship between form and meaning should be central in vocabulary instruction, and they should be complemented with reading activities where attention is drawn to the target lexical items.