Retrieving New Words Following Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition: Unique Impact of Contextual Constraint on Native Arabic Speakers Learning English

Self-paced reading times and cued recall were compared between native English speakers and native-Arabic-speaking ESL learners, to determine the influence of contextual constraint (moderate/strong) on incidental vocabulary acquisition. Both groups appeared to engage in incidental acquisition, but differed in which information facilitated retrieval accuracy and how constraint affected that process.