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Cited by 760Second Language Acquisition and LearningReading and Literacy DevelopmentEFL/ESL Teaching and Learning

Incidental Vocabulary Learning by Advanced Foreign Language Students: The Influence of Marginal Glosses, Dictionary Use, and Reoccurrence of Unknown Words

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HULSTIJN, JAN H., HOLLANDER, MEREL, GREIDANUS, TINE·1996·The Modern Language Journal
DOI 10.1111/j.1540-4781.1996.tb01614.x
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Abstract

Dutch advanced students of French read a French short story in one of three text reading conditions: Marginal Glosses (provision of L1 translations of unknown words), Dictionary (opportunity to use a bilingual dictionary), or Control. After reading, students were tested for their recall of 16 words that had appeared either once or three times in the text. Support was found for the hypothesis that frequency of occurrence will foster incidental vocabulary learning more when advanced second language (L2) readers are given the meanings of unknown words through marginal glosses or when they look up meanings in a dictionary than when no external information concerning unknown words' meanings is available. In the former case, reappearance of a word will reinforce the form‐meaning connection in the reader's mental lexicon. In the latter case, readers will often ignore unknown words or incorrectly infer their meanings, which will limit the frequency effect. This article ends with recommendations for teachers and researchers.

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  • The presence of marginal glosses enhances vocabulary retention compared to the absence of marginal glosses.

    “However, the presence of marginal glosses was found to enhance vocabulary retention, when compared to the absence of marginal glosses (Hulstijn, 1992;Hulstijn, Hollander & Greidanus, 1996;Jacobs, Dufon, & Fong, 1994;Watanabe, 1997).”

    From Some empirical evidence for the involvement load hypothesis in vocabulary acquisition (2001) · cites this paper as Hulstijn, Hollander & Greidanus, 1996

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Research works printed but not linked: 30

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Authors
HULSTIJN, J. H., HOLLANDER, M., & GREIDANUS, T.
Affiliations
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
Corresponding author
HULSTIJN, JAN H.
ORCID
HULSTIJN, JAN H.
Venue
The Modern Language Journal
Publisher
Wiley
Published
1996-09
Volume
80
Issue
3
Pages
327-339
ISSN
  • 0026-7902 (ISSN-L)
  • 1540-4781
DOI
10.1111/j.1540-4781.1996.tb01614.x
OpenAlex
W2154983645
Cited by
760
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 54 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 37 · 2016: 57 · 2015: 60 · 2014: 48 · 2013: 35 · 2012: 61
FWCI
9.86
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor, 5527 d)
Locations
  • Modern Language Journal (publishedVersion)
  • UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
Keywords
incidental vocabulary learning, marginal glosses, bilingual dictionary, word frequency, French as a foreign language, mental lexicon, inferencing

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