with Kirsten Haastrup

In Chapter 1, we deal with three major issues. The first question is: what is lexical inferencing and how does it relate to reading comprehension and lexical development? We first present an overview of our understanding of lexical inferencing, followed by a brief description of early studies that established second language (L2) lexical inferencing as a significant research area with implications for both reading theory and vocabulary acquisition. The second question is: what factors influence lexical inferencing and its outcomes? Here, we provide a synthesis of shared findings from mainly descriptive empirical studies of lexical inferencing undertaken in the 1990s and early 2000s, organized around factors influencing different parts of the process and its outcomes. These include learners' decisions to attempt inferencing, factors promoting successful determination of appropriate word meanings and factors relating lexical inferencing to retention of new lexical knowledge. The third question is: what processes are involved in lexical inferencing and how have they been conceptualized and theoretically explained? Research findings are presented pertaining to the linguistic and other types of cues and knowledge used by readers in lexical inferencing, its procedural components and theoretical perspectives proposed to explain its different aspects.

What is Lexical Inferencing and How Does it Relate to Reading Comprehension and Lexical Development?

Language comprehension and vocabulary development are intertwined issues of primary importance in our understanding of language learning and use. In first language (L1) development, young children initially learn new word forms and their meanings through frequent exposure to them in oral language contexts, particularly the most common few thousand words. Later, as they master literacy skills, reading becomes an important context for continued vocabulary growth (Nagy et al., 1985; Nation & Coady, 1988; Sternberg, 1987). In L2 development by older, literate learners, oral contexts remain important, but written texts are often a major source of exposure to new words, particularly in a foreign L2 (Huckin & Coady, 1999; Horst et al., 1998).