Incidental vocabulary acquisition: The role of the reader in the utilization of sentence context to develop and retain new word meanings

The current investigation focused on incidental encounters during silent reading, particularly the interaction between characteristics of the text in which unfamiliar words occur and characteristics of the reader. To explore the relationship between contextual information and the development of new word meaning, readers' eye movements were monitored while they encountered unfamiliar words in sentences presented on a computer screen. Initial processing time and rereading time on both the unfamiliar word and context that constrained the meaning of the unfamiliar word to a particular semantic category were compared as a function of where the semantically constraining contextual information was located within the sentence in relation to the location of the unfamiliar word. Readers' processing of unfamiliar words that were preceded by semantically constraining context was faster than their processing of unfamiliar words that had semantically constraining context follow their mention. Processing time differences were attributed to the combined influence of readers' working memory capacity and existing vocabulary knowledge. Evidence that readers had established an accurate meaning representation for unfamiliar words was confirmed with readers' performance on a memory post-test administered after the silent reading session. Readers' overall accuracy on the memory post-test was influenced by their vocabulary knowledge and their metacognitive strategy use.