Effects of Graded Texts on EFL College Students' Incidental ...

Chapter One
INTRODUCTION
It is generally agreed by second language (L2) learning researchers that
vocabulary growth commonly occurs incidentally while learners are engaged in other
cognitive exercises involving comprehension. Among these cognitive activities,
reading, especially extensive reading, has attracted much research attention due to the
fact that tremendous vocabulary growth, high overall language competence, and better
academic performances were observed from first language (L1) learners with pleasure
reading habits (Nation, 2001). Moreover, incidental vocabulary acquisition through
reading is also used to explain how children acquire mass amount <strong>of</strong> L1 vocabulary
within a relatively short period <strong>of</strong> time.
Huckin and Coady (1999) defined incidental learning in reading as a by-product,
not the target, <strong>of</strong> the main cognitive activity. In the process <strong>of</strong> reading, learners’
incidental vocabulary learning is the unconscious acquisition <strong>of</strong> word meanings
through engaging in texts for comprehension or understanding. In such process,
word knowledge is thought to be cumulated and developed gradually through multiple
exposures in various reading contexts. Krashen (1989) further claimed that
“competence in spelling and vocabulary is most efficiently attained by
comprehensible input in the form <strong>of</strong> reading” (p. 440). Extensive reading, as a form
<strong>of</strong> comprehensible input, has the effect <strong>of</strong> providing learners with rich contexts ideal
for vocabulary learning. During the reciprocal process <strong>of</strong> extensive reading, the
acquisition <strong>of</strong> words is the result <strong>of</strong> successes in inferring word meanings from
meaningful context, and through more reading experiences the developed and
matured vocabulary inference ability could in turn contributes to reading pr<strong>of</strong>iciency.
For L2 learning, extensive reading is considered as beneficial for overall language
1