The Psychology of Foreign Language Vocabulary Acquisition: Implications for Call

Abstract This review summarises current cognitive psychological knowledge concerning vocabulary acquisition and discusses implications for the development of effective computer assisted vocabulary acquisition methods. It argues that there are several aspects of vocabulary acquisition which involve qualitatively different learning processes: (1) acquisition of cognitive mechanisms for pattern recognition of written or spoken word forms, as well as of mechanisms for the production of spoken or written word forms ‐ this involves implicit learning processes in specialised input and output modules. In contrast, (2) acquisition of word meanings requires explicit (conscious) learning processes with deep processing strategies like semantic elaboration and imagery mediation resulting in better acquisition.