ABSTRACT
Following Nation’s (1990, 2013) framework of what it means to know a word, researchers and teachers have placed greater emphasis on word form and usage, in addition to word meaning. This development has led to more balanced approaches in vocabulary teaching and research, yet the field is still measuring vocabulary knowledge in largely the same way, using explicit-declarative measures of vocabulary knowledge (e.g., recall and recognition tests). In this chapter, I argue these measures are only capturing the tip of the iceberg. I introduce three new and sensitive measures of vocabulary knowledge and processing that can measure tacit-implicit, automatized explicit, or procedural aspects of vocabulary knowledge and learning. These measures are (1) reaction time tasks and priming, (2) the coefficient of variability as a measure of automaticity, and (3) eye tracking. Together, they cover Nation’s three dimensions of word knowledge (form, meaning, use), but different from traditional measures, they provide information about how fluently an individual can access their knowledge in real time. Fluent word retrieval is key because it underlies listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Thus, the introduction of real-time measures in vocabulary research will help expand teachers’ and researchers’ views of vocabulary knowledge once again, this time focusing on learners’ ability to use their knowledge under the time demands that characterize real-time communication.
