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Article published In:
Language learning for language minority students in a globalized world
Edited by Mark Feng Teng and Fan Fang
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 46:2] 2023
► pp. 253–278

The role of spoken vocabulary knowledge in language minority students’ incidental vocabulary learning from captioned television

ORCID logo | Macao Polytechnic University
ORCID logo | Kansai University

This study was to assess the spoken vocabulary knowledge and its role in incidental vocabulary learning from captioned television. The participants were a total of 87 minority students learning English as a foreign language in Australia. The breadth of their vocabulary knowledge was measured with a vocabulary size test, while the depth of their vocabulary knowledge was through an assessment of collocational and semantic relationships. The results indicated that (1) captioned videos are helpful for incidental vocabulary learning; (2) scores on the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge and incidental vocabulary learning from viewing captioned television are highly and positively correlated; and (3) scores on the depth of vocabulary knowledge can make a unique contribution to the prediction of incidental vocabulary learning at the form and meaning recognition level, in addition to the prediction afforded by scores on the breadth of vocabulary knowledge. The findings highlight a need to improve the depth of vocabulary knowledge for incidental vocabulary learning from captioned viewing.

Keywords: breadth of vocabulary knowledge, depth of vocabulary knowledge, incidental vocabulary learning, captioned television, captioned videos
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Theoretical frameworks for captioned television
    • 2.2Assessing vocabulary knowledge
    • 2.3Vocabulary knowledge and incidental vocabulary learning from captioned videos
    • 2.4Gaps and research questions
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Materials
    • 3.3Target words
    • 3.4Vocabulary knowledge (VK)
      • 3.4.1Breadth of vocabulary knowledge (BVK)
      • 3.4.2Depth of vocabulary knowledge (DVK)
    • 3.5Vocabulary measures
    • 3.6Procedure
    • 3.7Data analysis
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • 6.Limitations and implications
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 23 May 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.22033.ten
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