Lexical Elaboration and Intentional Vocabulary Acquisition: An Eye-Tracking Study

Prior research on lexical elaboration (providing additional information about unfamiliar words) has yielded non-significant effects on incidental vocabulary acquisition. Building on this, the present study used eye-tracking technology to examine whether similar results replicate under intentional learning conditions. Participants were Korean undergraduate students (N = 67) who were randomly assigned to one of three groups: baseline, unenhanced elaboration, or enhanced elaboration. They were instructed to read an English text twice while their eye movements were recorded. After reading, they responded to two forewarned vocabulary assessments measuring form and meaning recall. Overall, the unenhanced elaboration group exhibited distinct target-word processing patterns and higher meaning recall performance compared to the baseline group, whereas the enhanced elaboration group’s outcomes were comparable to the baseline group. For instance, generalized linear mixed-effects modeling (GLMM) revealed that while the unenhanced elaboration group maintained stable reading times on target words across the two readings, the baseline and enhanced elaboration groups exhibited significant reductions. Furthermore, only the unenhanced elaboration group significantly outperformed the baseline group in meaning recall. Collectively, our findings suggest that lexical elaboration, particularly without input enhancement, may facilitate vocabulary acquisition under intentional learning conditions by promoting more sustained attention to unfamiliar words.