ABSTRACT
Learning a new language poses many problems for the learner, not the least of which is how to acquire sufficient vocabulary to communicate effectively in the new language. In this chapter, an ongoing research effort is described whose main goal is to understand the role of prior knowledge in mediating the acquisition and retention of foreign vocabulary. The chapter is organized into four parts. The first part presents a brief discussion of the problems associated with studying the influence of prior knowledge on learning and retention. The second part offers a description and justification of the specific learning task studied, foreign vocabulary learning using the keyword method. The third part is an overview of the set of special methodologies developed to study this task. This set of methodologies, labeled the process-analytic approach, includes the use of task decomposition, verbal report, and interference methodologies to provide behavioral data relevant to inferring intermediate retrieval processes. Finally, the fourth part is a description of several empirical studies completed using this methodology.
