Incidental Acquisition of L2 Word Knowledge via Graded Readers

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Previous researches have shown that with graded readers, adult EFL learners of intermediate and advanced language abilities might acquire vocabulary knowledge incidentally. Through meaningful interaction with the text, there is gradual but steady incremental growth of vocabulary knowledge. But the effects of extensive reading on the incidental acquisition of vocabulary among young beginning EFL learners remain unknown. Furthermore, study on the effects of extensive reading with graded readers on the acquisition of grammatical knowledge of past tense is nonexistent. One purpose of the present study is to bridge the gaps by examining the effects of extensive reading with graded readers on the incidental word knowledge learning of a 12-year-old Taiwanese learner of English as a foreign language. Specifically, we sought to investigate the effects of extensive reading on the learner's acquisition and retention of (1) the receptive vocabulary knowledge of nouns, and (2) of the productive morphological knowledge about the past tense forms of regular and irregular verbs over a period of 4 weeks of extensive reading activity.