Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition through a Japanese Movie in Relation to Learner Proficiency Level, Frequency, and Contextual Richness

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between students' incidental vocabulary learning and their proficiency level, between acquisition and word frequency in a text and between word-gain and contextual support when the students see a Japanese movie with the subtitle in English and the audio in Japanese. Participants are Japanese learners of English, the second-graders of a national college of technology called Kosen. They are at the same ages of high school sophomores. The procedures are as follows: First, learners are classified into three proficiency levels. Secondly, learners are subject to vocabulary tests. Then, they take the pretest to be assessed in terms of their comprehension of the words in the movie. Next, the subjects see the movie. After that, they take the post-test identical to the pre-test except for the order of questions. Then, the scores of the pre-test and the post-test are compared for frequency of occurrence and level of contextual support. It is concluded that word acquisition is profoundly affected by its frequency and learners' capability. Contextual support remains in control of frequency of words.