Reading, word-focused activities and incidental vocabulary acquisition in a second language

Reading is claimed to be the major source of vocabulary growth in L1, but is it also the main source of L2 vocabulary? This paper surveys some experiments in acquiring L2 vocabulary from reading that report very small vocabulary gains from short and long texts. By comparison, reading supplemented with word-focused tasks yields better results. Similarly, when reading is compared with a word-focused activity alone, it is the latter that is more effective for L2 vocabulary acquisition. The hypothesis of ‘task-induced involvement load’ is suggested as an explanation and prediction of task efficacy.