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Applied Linguistics 2004 25(1):1-37; doi:10.1093/applin/25.1.1
© 2004 by Oxford University Press
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Vocabulary Input through Extensive Reading: A Comparison of Words Found in Children's Narrative and Expository Reading Materials

Dee Gardner1

1 Brigham Young University

The role of extensive reading in building vocabulary continues to receive considerable attention in first and second language research and pedagogy. This study analyses the lexical differences between narrative and expository reading materials used in upper-elementary education (10- and 11-year-old children), and explores how these differences could affect children's potential vocabulary acquisition through reading. Results of a computerized analysis of nearly 1.5 million word tokens reveals marked differences between 28 narrative and 28 expository children's books in terms of overall token distribution and individual type repetitions at all levels of vocabulary analysed in the study (i.e. general high frequency words, academic high frequency words, and specialized words). Further exploration of the lexical data indicates high numbers of register-specific words at all levels of vocabulary, particularly at the more specialized levels where the potential for protracted vocabulary growth is the greatest. A subsequent discussion addresses qualitative differences in the characteristics of these exclusive narrative and expository types. These lexical findings are used to assess claims of Wide Reading and Free Reading relative to children's acquisition of vocabulary through extensive reading, especially the default claims of ‘incidental’ word acquisition through repetitive encounters with unknown words while reading large volumes of material for pleasure.

Received April 2003.


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D. Gardner
Validating the Construct of Word in Applied Corpus-based Vocabulary Research: A Critical Survey
Applied Linguistics, June 1, 2007; 28(2): 241 - 265.
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