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The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics
[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 26, No. 0, pp.418-440
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 31 Mar 2026
Received 12 Feb 2026 Revised 02 Mar 2026 Accepted 02 Mar 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.26..202603.418

Effects of Lexical Coverage on L2 Incidental Vocabulary Learning During Listening

Hyeeun Park ; Josephine Mijin Lee
(First author) Graduate Student, Department of English Education Ewha Womans University ninjahyeni@ewha.ac.kr
(Corresponding author) Associate Professor, Department of English Education Ewha Womans University A407 Education Building, 52 Ewhayeodae-gil, Seodaemun-gu Seoul, Korea, Tel: +82-2-3277-2666 leejosephine@ewha.ac.kr


© 2026 KASELL All rights reserved
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study examined the effect of lexical coverage (90%, 95%, 98%) on incidental vocabulary learning (IVL) in listening. Seventy-seven Korean EFL middle school students listened to passages in which coverage was manipulated by using pseudowords. Vocabulary knowledge (form, grammar, meaning) was measured immediately and after three weeks. Results showed a non-linear effect in that the 98% condition significantly outperformed the 90% condition, while the 90% and 95% groups showed no significant difference. Across dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, form and grammar were acquired more readily than meaning. A significant Coverage × Time × Dimension interaction revealed that for form and grammar knowledge, higher coverage led to better initial learning, but all groups experienced attrition over time. For meaning, only the 98% condition facilitated initial vocabulary learning, but this knowledge showed steep attrition. These findings suggest that near-complete coverage is needed for IVL, especially for acquiring meaning knowledge, in listening.

Keywords:

lexical coverage, second language, incidental vocabulary learning, listening

Acknowledgments

During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used ChatGPT (GPT-5.3, OpenAI) for language editing and stylistic refinement. All conceptualization, analysis, interpretation, and conclusions are solely those of the authors.

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