Linguistics & Language · Language Learning & Translation
A topic within Language Learning & Translation, itself one of 9 topics in that field and part of Linguistics & Language.
2 works
William E. Nagy, Patricia A. Herman & Richard C. Anderson
Shows from a controlled reading experiment that students learn word meanings incidentally from context at a low but real per-encounter rate, arguing that wide reading rather than direct instruction accounts for most of a reader's adult vocabulary.
I. S. P. Nation
Calculates the number of word families a learner needs to recognise 98% of the running words in ordinary text and speech, and uses that coverage threshold to argue for a specific, large vocabulary-size target rather than a vague one.
link checked 17 Sept 2026