Evaluating the Vocabulary Coping Strategies of L2 Readers: An Eye Tracking Study

Research suggests that second language (L2) readers often lack strategic competence in dealing with unknown lexica. This mixed methods study of Japanese readers of English used eye tracking and other methods to empirically examine the use and efficacy of vocabulary coping strategies, including dictionary use, inferring meaning from context, and ignoring unknown words. The 16 novel words (pseudowords) in the text were linked to an online dictionary. In order to examine the effect of relevance and context cues on vocabulary coping strategies, half of the pseudowords were in sections relevant to the assigned research task and half were presented with clear context cues. The results reveal that participants relied on dictionary use even when the word was irrelevant and the meaning could be easily inferred. The data suggest that many participants considered relevance but not the presence of context cues when determining whether to look up a word. Eye tracking confirmed that participants tended to access dictionary links even before context cues were read. Overall, accessing numerous dictionary definitions nonselectively and viewing definitions for a short time were detrimental to task performance. One could argue that L2 readers should consider the context and relevance of words before dictionary use. However, further research on vocabulary coping strategies is needed involving different texts, tasks, and dictionary types.