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Vocabulary is a fundamental component in a language. As Wilkins said "without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed." Therefore, vocabulary knowledge should be the top priority when it comes to learning a foreign language.

When referring to the study of a second language, it is quite common that we use learning and acquisition interchangeably. Linguists classify vocabulary acquisition into various approaches, such as incidental vocabulary acquisition and intentional vocabulary learning. According to the definition, th本论文由英语论文网 www.51lunwen.org整理提供ese two words can be distinguished from the perspective of learners' intention. However, strictly speaking, only the process of learning first language can be defined as acquisition, for there are no barriers of culture and emotion. So in this thesis, acquisition and learning will be used interchangeably.

Therefore in this thesis, I mainly talk about incidental vocabulary acquisition and intentional vocabulary learning in the analysis of learning a second language.

Keywords: vocabulary acquisition theory, incidental vocabulary acquisition, intentional vocabulary acquisition

2.1 Different Approaches of Vocabulary Acquisition

Since after the 1970s, research into vocabulary acquisition began to rise. More and more linguistics have a share in it. Upon that, vocabulary acquisition gradually becomes a focus in applied linguistics. Approaches to vocabulary acquisition fall into different categories according to different criteria. In the following part, I will discuss three types of vocabulary acquisition respectively.

2.1.1 Indirect and Direct Vocabulary Learning

In Nation's book "LS.P. Teaching and Learning Vocabulary" (1990), he defines direct learning as "in direct learning, the learners do exercises and activities that focus their attention on vocabulary. Such exercises include word-building exercises, guessing words from context when this is done as a cla本论文由英语论文网 www.51lunwen.org整理提供ss exercise, learning words in lists, and vocabulary games." In the contrast, "in indirect learning, the learner's attention is focused on some other features, usually the message that is conveyed by a speaker or writer. If the amount of unknown vocabulary is low in such messages, considerable vocabulary learning can occur even though the learners' attention is not directly toward vocabulary learning.

2.1.2 Implicit and Explicit Vocabulary Learning

According to N. Ellis, "Implicit learning is acquisition of knowledge about the underlying structure of a complex stimulus environment by a process which takes place naturally, simply and without conscious operation. Explicit learning is a more conscious operation where the individual makes and tests hypotheses in a search for structure. In brief, implicit and explicit are both originated in the field of psychology. Knowledge attainment can thus take place implicitly (an unconscious and automatic abstraction of the structural nature of the material arrived at from experience of instances), explicitly through selective learning (the learners search for information and build, then test h本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。