ABSTRACT

In SLA research to date, there has been much less attention paid to the lexicon than to other parts of language, although this picture is quickly changing (see Coady & Huckin, 1997; Meara, 1995; Wesche & Paribakht, 1999a). Earlier reviews of the lexicon (e.g., Gass, 1988b; Meara, 1984) have pointed out that the lexicon has been neglected in second language acquisition research. However, there are numerous reasons for believing that lexis is important in second language acquisition. In fact, the lexicon may be the most important language component for learners.