A Semantic Field Approach to Passive Vocabulary Acquisition for Reading Comprehension.

Traditionally, vocabulary study has been based on a word-by-word approach and, as such, has often been criticized as a component in ESL curricula. This study compares a traditional approach to vocabulary instruction with an approach based on the semantic fields of words that appeared in college-level reading texts. Half of the words presented to experimental groups (semantic field approach) were randomly selected and presented to control groups (traditional approach), according to the format used in current vocabulary texts. The semantic field approach was based on the association between five related words and a keyword that could be mentally substituted in context. Testing revealed some short-term advantage for the control groups, but no significant differences were revealed on long-term testing. Since experimental groups were exposed to twice as many words in the same amount of time, the findings lend support to the use of the semantic field approach. In addition, long-term testing revealed, for the words in this study, a highly significant difference favoring vocabulary taught experimentally over incidental learning that may occur during exposure to academic English.