Contextualized vocabulary learning

Lexical development in a second language (L2) is increasingly understood to be complex and multidimensional (Kim, Crossley, & Kyle, 2018; Pellicer-Sánchez, 2016). Knowledge of a word or expression may be at different levels of depth—that is, recognizing the word receptively, being able to use it productively, knowing its associated word family, or being able to understand and use it in non-literal expressions and pragmatically appropriate ways (Elgort, 2017). Vocabulary learning occurs over time and is dependent on learner actions and on multiple encounters with a given item. Words are “open systems” (Churchill, 2007, p. 354); word knowledge emerges dynamically and contingently through context and user interactions (Kasper & Wagner, 2018). The process involved thus invites the application of a dynamic systems or complexity theory (CT) perspective (Godwin-Jones, 2018a).