How Vocabulary is Learned

This guide to vocabulary acquisition is essential reading

for teachers of English as a second or foreign language.

It presents the major ideas and principles that relate to the

teaching and learning of vocabulary and evaluates a wide

range of practical activities designed to help boost students’

vocabulary acquisition.

Key questions which are answered include:

• How many words should students learn at a time,

and how often?

• How much classroom time should be spent teaching

vocabulary?

• What is the best way to group vocabulary for learning?

• Is it useful to provide students with the L1 translations of

unknown words?

• Why do some students make greater progress than others?

stuart webb is Professor in Applied Linguistics at the

University of Western Ontario, Canada.

paul nation is Emeritus Professor in Applied Linguistics at

Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Teachers will find answers to many of their perennial questions

about vocabulary learning—as well as some they had not yet

thought to ask! There is research evidence to support established

practices, but also new evidence that challenges old ideas.

patsy lightbown (co-author of How Languages are Learned,

with Nina Spada)