PERCEPTIONS OF INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY LEARNING THROUGH READING BY EFL STUDENTS

Abstract

During the development of native language, children acquire new vocabulary incidentally through listening and reading experiences. Watching television, reading books, and listening to music were considered to be important factors that influenced the language learning process. This paper reports the results of an investigation whose purpose was to determine if CTU, Vietnamese EFL students could learn vocabulary incidentally while reading in the classroom. The findings demonstrate that such incidental vocabulary learning did occur for EFL learner. This study designed a test for the same group of subjects and used a set of reading materials. The participants in this research are students, who study English as a second language, at the School of Foreign Languages, Can Tho University. A total of 192 students participated, and each student received two identical sets of multiple-choice questions. Part one was not provided any materials. It served as a control group to test whether there was any influence before and after reading the materials. Part two consisted of a reading passage and served as the experimental group. The multiple-choice test was designed to measure knowledge of the target words. This test consisted of three answers for each question and was designed to determine whether the participant recognized the target word. The structure of the test enabled a clear assessment of the learners' familiarity with the vocabulary in context. Although the target word is not difficult to identify, it carries multiple meanings depending on the context, each context giving a different sense of the word. The results indicated that L2 incidental vocabulary learning occurred through reading. A significant relationship was found between prior vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary learning. Incidental vocabulary learning through reading offers significant benefits; however, it also presents several challenges. These findings could serve as valuable evidence for teachers, learners, and educational administrators. They would provide insights on how to effectively integrate this approach into language learning strategies and curriculum design.