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The Lexical Advantages of Narrow Reading for Second Language Learners
Author(s) -
Schmitt Norbert,
Carter Ronald
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
tesol journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.468
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1949-3533
pISSN - 1056-7941
DOI - 10.1002/j.1949-3533.2000.tb00220.x
Subject(s) - vocabulary , reading (process) , linguistics , citation , applied linguistics , psychology , computer science , library science , philosophy
Vocabulary Learning and Narrow Reading There is a consensus that the incidental vocabulary learning stemming from reading is an essential complement to the explicit teaching of vocabulary (e.g., Coady & Huckin, 1997; Schmitt & McCarthy, 1997). A major reason for this consensus is that the number of words necessary for effective language use is greater than that which can be taught easily (although see Meara , 1995, 1998, for a rebuttal to the limitations of vocabulary teaching). Estimates for the number of words required vary from about 2,000 for everyday oral ability (Schonell, Meddleton, & Shaw, 1956) to 10,000 or more for reading academic texts (Hazenberg & Hulstijn, 1996). Another reason is that a reader must know a very high percentage of words in any text in order to either obtain the gist of the passage or to guess the meaning of any unknown words. The exact percentage depends on factors such as background knowledge of the text topic and purpose of reading, but figures of95% or higher are normally suggested. These high percentage figures translate into the necessity of knowing approximately 5,000 words to begin to read authentic texts (Hirsh & Nation, 1992). Language instructors would have trouble teaching this number of words in any explicit way. In all likelihood, they will be able to teach only a small percentage of these words in class, so the rest need to be met and learned in exposure activities outside the