Factors Affecting the Learning of Single-Word Items 1

This chapter focuses on factors affecting the learning of single-word items. The chapter starts with a discussion of research into the effect of word-related factors (cognates, similarity in form or meaning, word length, part of speech, concreteness, polysemy) on the learning, processing, and use of single words. Next, the chapter zooms in on how contextual factors like frequency of occurrence and L1 and L2 frequency can play a role in vocabulary learning. Finally, the chapter discusses two learner-related factors (prior vocabulary knowledge and working memory) that have been shown to affect word learning. The chapter concludes with some directions for future research.