Foreign language learners: words they hear and words they learn: a case study

Abstract

Many studies investigate the plurality of factors that determine the learning of words, but few attempt to analyze the relationship between input and uptake. In the present study the oral input in the foreign language, received in class by a group of fourth graders, is analyzed according to the frequency lists developed by Nation (1986). The study also compares the input from the teacher’s speech with the input from the course-book and it offers some indications of the learners’ uptake. We set to answer questions such as 1) Which one of the two - books or teachers - seem to offer better chances for incidental acquisition to occur? 2) What proportion of the total vocabulary available in class is typically acquired by the learners? It is suggested that while the teacher’s speech as well as the written input available from the textbook represent equally rich lexical environments, the amount of vocabulary produced by the former is substantially greater than the one available from the latter. Our data show that a great proportion of vocabulary can be acquired by the learners in class. An indication is given of the factors that seem to determine the learners’ uptake.