ELT365 · Day 179 — Vocabulary from Reading: Incidental Acquisition

Idea — Incidental vocabulary acquisition happens when learners meet a word in context repeatedly without deliberately studying it. Nation’s research suggests 10–20 encounters produce productive acquisition.

Example — A learner reading extensively at the right level meets “inevitable” in different contexts across several chapters and infers, then absorbs, its meaning.

Try — Ask learners to flag one unknown word per extensive reading session. Track it for a month. How many encounters before they feel confident using it?

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