This study aimed to examine Korean learners’ language development under four different learning conditions with the aid of input enhancement. Four types of learning conditions were carefully manipulated: (1) more incidental, (2) less incidental, (3) rule-search, and (4) instructed. The two incidental groups were told to understand the meaning of the passage, while the rule-search group was asked to find the embedded rule while reading. The instructed group received explicit rule instruction before the reading task. A total of 141 11th grade high school students in South Korea participated in this study and took pre/post grammatical judgment tests, a reading comprehension test, and a guided sentence composition test. The findings indicated that incidental rule learning in Korean EFL was possible while their attention was on meaning. In addition, the degree of rule learning and output was maximized when explicit instruction was presented. However, there was no significant difference in the participants’ overall reading comprehension. Along with pedagogical implications, the three interface positions are also discussed.

This study investigated whether or not there is any difference in the extent to which incidental vocabulary learning takes place according to the presence of background knowledge. Along with background knowledge, three other variables such as reading comprehension ability, reading strategies, and knowledge of words were examined to determine how each variable contributes to incidental vocabulary learning. The data from two groups of 60 second grade students in a Korean middle school was analyzed in this research, and the followings were measured: the use of reading strategies, reading comprehension ability, knowledge of passage sight vocabulary, background knowledge on a text, and knowledge of target words. The findings revealed that the participants inferred the meaning of unknown words better when they had more background knowledge. Each of the four variables was a significant predictor of their incidental vocabulary learning and played a facilitative role in the lexical inferencing process. The results are discussed in terms of the conditions for efficient incidental vocabulary learning through reading.

The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent Korean college students can acquire vocabulary from reading course materials. The participants were 32 college students who enrolled in a TEFL methodology course. A vocabulary test was administered at the beginning and the end of the course, and the results showed that the participants were able to recognize meanings of an average of 3.6 new words, suggesting that small but significant amounts of incidental vocabulary learning can occur as a result of reading course materials. The findings also showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the number of times each word occurred and its relative learning gain. The results of this study suggests that incidental vocabulary learning is possible from reading even though the amount of such learning is not large. Implications for vocabulary learning and teaching are discussed.