The Study of the Effects of Reading Factors on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

To fig ure out the most robust factors influencing incidental vocabulary acquisition (IVA) performance, in this paper three reader variables are identif ied based on literature review, i.e., reading prof iciency, sight vocabulary and content schema; and an investigation is conducted to search for their different impacts. After the analysis of the collected data by SPSS 10.0, the results suggested that individual difference in IVA is largely caused by the difference in reading ability and previous vocabulary knowledge. Therefore, to foster learners’ IVA ability, EFL teachers need to help students develop independent reading strategies for IVA, provide material suitable to students’ level and enrich their background knowledge.