Mark Feng TENG, Barry Lee REYNOLDS
The editors proposed the theme of this special issue, incidental vocabulary learning in practice, to address the long overdue bridging of research and practice within this active area. In recent years, vocabulary learning has received an increasing amount of attention (e.g., Webb, 2020), and the editors took this increased interest as a starting point for exploring what support might be appropriate for incidental vocabulary learning in practice within and beyond the classroom. In order to be able to make suggestions on directions for the most appropriate kind of support for incidental vocabulary learning, it is essential to explore how language learners, particularly in the Asian foreign language context, can be supported for better outcomes. Learning English as a foreign language (EFL) does not have to be difficult. It should be enjoyable. Vocabulary learning requires continual exercise to strengthen learners’ innovative thinking, cognitive processes, communicative proficiency, and ability to infer meaning from context. Thus, we aimed for this special issue to inspire English teachers to consider whether what they do in the classroom prepares learners for meaningful engagement in activities outside the classroom requiring meaning-focused English use. It is essential to find ways to disseminate good practice and, perhaps most importantly, to integrate innovative approaches across curricula, institutions, and contexts to broadly influence vocabulary learning. These concerns prompted this special issue, which aimed to introduce the conceptual and methodological shifts in research to fully explore and understand the challenges of vocabulary instruction and inform effective, enjoyable, and sustainable incidental vocabulary learning.
