Incidental and intentional vocabulary learning in a foreign language : a comparison between high- and low-proficiency English language learners

The study explores disparities in incidental and intentional vocabulary learning in an unfamiliar language between high-proficiency (HP) and low-proficiency (LP) English language learners (ELLs). It also assesses how incidental vocabulary learning influences intentional vocabulary learning. The study involved 72 university ELLs - 37 with HP and 35 with LP in English. Participants' incidental and intentional vocabulary learning was assessed through their performance on a translation recognition task following a letter search task. To determine the impact of incidental vocabulary learning on intentional vocabulary learning, participants’ performance on words included in the letter search task was compared with their performance on the translation recognition task of new words. Results indicate that while both groups exceeded chance level in incidental vocabulary learning, the HP group demonstrated better incidental and intentional vocabulary learning abilities compared with the LP group. LP ELLs exhibit a flatter learning curve and improve only from the first to the fourth block while HP ELLs significantly improve across all four blocks. Finally, both groups exhibited an incidental learning effect, but this effect seemed to be eroding in the HP group. These results extend previous findings by indicating that the incidental learning effect is not similar across all proficiency levels.