Vocabulary Acquisition

Research

Question: How can incidental contact with words expand vocabulary?

 Answer/Quote: “Overall, our participants were at an advantage in terms of processing time and retrieval accuracy for novel words when they could combine the…morphemic [roots, prefixes and suffixes] and contextual cues that were available during incidental word learning. Our findings indicate that skilled readers derive more precise meanings as a result of pooling sources [morphemic and contextual] of information, which ultimately leads to long-term gains in vocabulary knowledge.” P. 187.

Comment: I interpret this finding to mean that direct teaching of roots and context clues should provide, while reading, even from incidental experience with new words, growth in vocabulary. RayS.

Title: “Combining Contextual and Morphemic Cues Is Beneficial During Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition ; Semantic Transparency in Novel Compound Word Processing.” SM Brusnighan and JR Folk. Reading Research Quarterly (April, May and June 2012), 172-190.