立教大学

Vocabulary and reading are characterized by a mutually supportive relationship, i.e., vocabulary is a key predictor of reading comprehension, and reading is a main source of vocabulary growth. Second language (L2) vocabulary development should then be viewed as both a cause and a consequence of reading abilities. Although many studies have shown that new vocabulary can be learnt incidentally from reading, they typically relied on offline vocabulary tests. The last decade has witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of studies using eye-tracking to explore the learning of new vocabulary from reading, providing a direct record of learners’ allocation of attention during the learning process. In the examination of vocabulary as a predictor of reading comprehension, an important concern has been to find the percentage of words in a text that learners need to know to achieve an adequate level of comprehension (i.e., lexical coverage). While a few studies have been conducted in this area, they have also relied on offline measures. Our understanding of how lexical coverage impacts reading fluency and processing effort is therefore limited. This presentation will first provide an overview of research findings from eye-tracking studies examining the role of reading for vocabulary growth. It will then present results of recent eye-tracking research examining the role of lexical coverage on reading comprehension. This will illustrate the instrumental role of eye-tracking in examining the relation between vocabulary and reading.