ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by characterizing intentional, or deliberate, L2 vocabulary learning mainly in relation to incidental learning, a key difference between these two conditions of learning being that intentional learning involves greater focus on the written and spoken forms of vocabulary items that are encountered. Next to be considered are two types of activity with well-documented potential to enhance the effectiveness of intentional learning, namely, “retrieval practice” and “elaborative processing”. The first of these two topics involves discussion of productive knowledge and effortful processing (or “desirable difficulty”). The second topic involves discussion of Levels of Processing theory and Barcroft’s Type of Processing – Resource Allocation model. To apply some of the concepts that have been outlined, we consider a method that has attracted a phenomenal amount of attention from researchers of intentional L2 word-learning, the keyword method.
