The Role of Glosses in L2 Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition in Reading

Incidental vocabulary acquisition is the primary way for second language learners to acquire knowledge and adding glosses has been proven a great contributor this process. Generally speaking, refer translation equivalent words, L2 synonyms or brief explanations of target words. This paper reviewed studies on role in incidental reading terms gloss languages, types, locations modalities. Findings indicate that 1) conducive acquisition; 2) effects languages are mediated by learners' proficiency; 3) multiple-choice better than single-translation glosses; 4) multi-modal single-modal glosses. These findings support Revised Hierarchical Model, Involvement Load Hypothesis Cognitive Theory Multimedia Learning. Future research should focus more measurement productive knowledge, depth standard proficiency learning process reading.