This volume reports on two research projects that investigated the vocabulary acquisition strategies of Chinese-speaking learners in English-as-a-foreign-language and English-as-a-second-language contexts. The first project generated a model named the lexis learning rainbow; the second was conducted to test the model.

The first project includes both a quantitative and a qualitative study. The quantitative study longitudinally explored how university Chinese-speaking learners in the United Kingdom improved their vocabulary acquisition. The participants’ vocabulary acquisition strategies were also investigated to test whether there were clusters of strategies or specific strategies associated with different vocabulary levels. To complement the quantitative study, a longitudinal case study was conducted with four learners (two of higher and two of lower proficiency). The lexis learning rainbow, developed from the first project, showed a relationship among the participants’ vocabulary acquisition strategies, motivation, and stages of vocabulary learning. The second project consisted of two longitudinal studies with new participants and aimed to test the predictive power of the lexis learning rainbow. Both studies provided evidence to support the model.

In vocabulary acquisition research on Chinese learners of English, longitudinal studies have been rare, and there has been even less attention to vocabulary acquisition strategies in different language learning contexts. Xing has sought to fill these gaps. The lexis learning rainbow is the first attempt in second-language vocabulary acquisition research to combine linguistic and nonlinguistic strategies, motivation, and stages of vocabulary learning into one comprehensive representation. Future research might investigate the lexis learning rainbow in different learning contexts to test its applicability and predictive power.