Abstract

Despite the surge of interest in vocabulary acquisition research, practical teaching materials and approaches have not been sufficiently reported. This article addresses recent second language vocabulary acquisition theories so that educators can adapt the principles to vocabulary teaching in classrooms. Additionally, a design for vocabulary materials and its pilot study for Japanese EFL learners are presented. The materials were developed from the theoretical underpinnings of word-association, incidental vocabulary learning, and systematic vocabulary learning. Through an idea-bubble task and illustrations in each unit, learners can construct visual images of target words from English newspapers. Vocabulary teaching material with word-association and Media English can contribute to building opinions and presenting perspectives in English for Japanese EFL learners.