1.3.2　Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

1.3.2IncidentalVocabularyAcquisition

Itisgenerallyacceptedthataconsiderableamountofvocabularyisacquiredincidentally,i.e.asa“by-product”ofreading(e.g.,Nation&Coady,1988;Nation,2001).Incidentallearningisdefinedas“learningwithoutanintenttolearn,orasthelearningofonething,forexamplevocabulary,whenthestudent'sprimaryobjectiveistodosomethingelse”(Laufer&Hulstijn,2001,p.10).Incidentalvocabularyacquisitioncanbedefinedas“thelearningofnewwordsasaby-productofameaning-focusedcommunicativeactivity,suchasreading,listening,andinteraction,whichoccursthroughmultipleexposuretoawordindifferentcontexts”(Huckin&Coady,1999,p.185).Forincidentalvocabularyacquisitiontooccur,attentiontolexicalformsandinferencinglexicalmeaningsfromcontextaretwonecessaryandcrucialfactors.

Theconceptofattentionisusedtodescribe“theprocessesinvolvedinselectingtheinformationtobeprocessedandstoredinmemory”(Robinson,1993,p.287).Inincidentalvocabularyacquisition,thelearner'sattentionisprimarilyfocusedoncommunicativemeaning,notonform.However,manytheoristsarguethatvocabularylearningrequiresattentiontobothmeaningandform(e.g.,Ellis,1995;Robinson,1995).Schmidt(1993)pointedoutthat,tosomedegreeatleast,consciousattentiontoformisnecessaryforincidentallearning.Intakeisdefinedasthesubsetofinputthatisattendedtoandnoticed.Inotherwords,attentiontoformintheinputisnecessaryforinputtobecomeintakeandthusavailableforfurthermentalprocessing.Attentionisclearlyrelatedtopurpose,whichinturnisgovernedinlargepartbytaskdemands.L2researchers(e.g.,Schmidt,1990)claimthatincidentalacquisitionispossiblewhentaskdemandsforceL2learners'attentionontospecificfeaturesintheinput.Inotherwords,well-designedtaskscanfacilitatenoticingofaspectsofL2syntax,vocabulary,andphonology.

Itisgenerallyagreedthatmostofthevocabularyisacquiredincidentally(e.g.,Huckin&Coady,1999;Laufer&Hulstijn,2001).Failuretoworkoutthemeaningsofessentialwordsmayimpedetheoverallunderstandingofreadingororaltexts.Therefore,itiscrucialforL2learnerstodevelop“on-line”skillsorstrategiestohandleunfamiliarvocabulary,forexample,thestrategyofinferencinglexicalmeaningfromcontext.

Lexicalinferencing“involvesmakinginformedguessesastothemeaningofawordinlightofallavailablelinguisticcuesincombinationswiththelearner'sgeneralknowledgeoftheworld,herawarenessofcontextandherrelevantlinguisticknowledge”(Haastrup,1991,p.40).Inotherwords,inferencingthelexicalmeaningofunknownwordsmeanscompensatingforvocabularydeficiencybyusingsuchcluesascognatewords,contextualcluesandextralinguisticclues(includingbackgroundnoise,toneofvoice,andsoon).

Beingabletoinferencelexicalmeaningthroughcontextisimportantforsuccessfulvocabularylearning.Schmitt(1997)developedataxonomyof50vocabularylearningstrategiesconsistingofthoseusedtoinfermeaningsandthoseusedtoconsolidatewords.Iftheselexicalinferencingstrategiesareusedsuccessfully,theycan“serveforpurposesofimmediatecomprehensioninalisteningorreadingcontext,andunderfavourableconditionsmayleadtoretentionofthewordform,aswellassemanticandotherlexicalinformation”(Paribakht&Wesche,1999).

Research(Paribakht&Wesche,1997)identifiedthefactorsinvolvedinlexicalinferencing.Theseincludethewrittentextsinwhichwordsareembedded,thefeaturesofgivenwords,learners'knowledgeandtheefforttheyputin,andthementalactivitythelearnerisfocusedon.