Impact of intensive reading over the lexical repertoire: a quantitative analysis

• Autor(a) principal: da Silva, Eduardo Batista
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Oliveira, Leidiane Cardoso de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Domínios de Lingu@gem
• Texto Completo: https://seer.ufu.br/index.php/dominiosdelinguagem/article/view/33042
• topic: Léxico; Leitura; Vocabulário fundamental; Ensino; Língua inglesa; Lexis; Reading; Fundamental Vocabulary; English Language

Reading can serve as a vocabulary source for the English language learner. In this context, this paper aims at analyzing the performance of English language learners, with the purpose of investigating whether there is incidental acquisition of vocabulary after continued exposure to texts written with the most common words in English. The specific objectives are the following: 1) raise awareness among teachers and researchers regarding the relevance of reading in the English class and 2) discuss vocabulary-related quantitative aspects. The theoretical framework resorts to contributions from Corpus Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. Concerning methodology, after the participants were selected, a test known as Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) was applied, which assesses self-recognition of target words. The VKS was applied before and after the 20 texts were delivered. In the pre-test, 14.3% of the target words were known by more than half of the subjects, whereas in the post-test, 66.7% of the target words were known by more than half of them. The results indicate that reading-based activities for lexical practice provide a high level of incidental acquisition.