INCIDENTAL OR INTENTIONAL? A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF INCIDENTAL SECOND LANGUAGE VOCABULARY LEARNING

It is observed that several first language vocabulary is acquired incidentally. Both learners and teachers are aware that learning a second language requires the successful acquisition of large numbers of words. Researchers suggest that second language learners need to know on average 3,000 - 4,000 word-families to understand audio input and up to 8,000 word-families to understand written input. Effective vocabulary learning is thus an enormous but essential task. Incidental vocabulary learning is considered to be the “by-product” of extensive reading and viewing. While there is substantial second language research on incidental vocabulary learning, inconclusive findings have been found, and some key issues are not fully addressed. Focusing on the second language context, this paper aims to explore the concept of incidental learning of second language vocabulary and discusses to what extent it is possible as well as effective from exposures to reading, reading-while-listening, and audio-visual input.  With reference to empirical studies, pedagogical implications for language teaching will be discussed.