Original scientific paper
Reading, Vocabulary Acquisition and Strategic Behavior of Foreign Language Learners
Andrea-Beata JELIĆ
; University of Zagreb, Zagreb
Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine incidental vocabulary
acquisition through reading, perceived use of reading
strategies (in the form of lexical inferencing strategies), and
to examine the relationship between the two variables.
Participants were adolescent learners of French as a foreign
language in several high-schools in Zagreb. The instruments
included an authentic reading material in French, incidental
vocabulary acquisition test administered at three different
occasions, as well as strategy use questionnaire developed
for the purpose of the study. The results suggest that
adolescent learners can acquire vocabulary incidentally
through reading, and that some portion of the acquired
lexical items stays in their long-term memory. The study
subjects used the global lexical inferencing strategies somewhat more frequently than the local ones. The data also
suggest that there is a weak positive correlation between the
strategy use and the number of incidentally acquired lexical
items immediately after reading. There is no statistically
significant correlation between the strategy use and the
number of lexical items acquired on the basis of lexical
inferencing, or a month after the treatment.
Keywords
reading in a foreign language; incidental vocabulary acquisition; reading strategies; French as a foreign language
Hrčak ID:
42604
URI
Publication date:
30.10.2009.
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