Vocabulary is one of the key components of language proficiency and is crucial for successful communication in a second language. Learners need to acquire large vocabulary sizes in order to understand a range of written and spoken texts, as well as to communicate with ease with others in the target language. Thus, a main concern of language researchers and practitioners has been to find effective approaches to support learners in acquiring the huge vocabulary learning targets. Vocabulary gains in research studies have traditionally been measured using offline tests, e.g., post-treatment vocabulary tests. However, in the last decade, we have witnessed an unprecedented increase in the number of vocabulary studies using eye-tracking, specifically to explore learners’ online processing of new words and their relationship with lexical gains. Until now, eye-tracking and its techniques have been predominantly used in psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology as a measure of cognitive effort and attention allocation. Second language acquisition research has begun to incorporate the utilisation of eye-tracking as a key tool for language acquisition studies.

The aim of this presentation is to provide an overview of what eye-tracking has shown so far in its early stages as a tool to study second language vocabulary learning. The presentation will first provide an introduction to the eye-tracking technique, showing its main advantages and affordances for the study of vocabulary learning. It will then illustrate the use of eye-tracking in vocabulary research, through the presentation of examples from recent studies on learning from reading and subtitled viewing. Directions for future research will be identified as well during the talk.

Speaker Biography

Ana Pellicer-Sánchez
University College London, United Kingdom

Dr Ana Pellicer-Sánchez is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and TESOL at the Institute of Education in the Faculty of Education and Society at University College London (UCL), United Kingdom. She is a member of the UCL Centre for Applied Linguistics, where she conducts research on second language acquisition. Her research focuses on the teaching and learning of vocabulary in a second or foreign language. Recently, she has turned her focus on the use of eye-tracking technology to examine the cognitive processes involved in vocabulary learning when using different input conditions. Her work has appeared in international journals such as Language Learning, Language Teaching Research, Language Teaching, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, and The Modern Language Journal, among others. She is co-author of Eye-tracking in Applied Linguistics Research (2018), and co-editor of Understanding Formulaic Language
A Second Language Acquisition Perspective
(2019). She has recently co-edited a special issue on Eye-tracking in Vocabulary Research in Research Methods in Applied Linguistics (2024).

Dr Pellicer-Sánchez has participated in a number of national and international projects and committees, exploring the acquisition of English in different contexts. She has been the convenor of the Vocabulary Studies Special Interest Group of the British Association of Applied Linguistics (2018-2022) and the co-chair of the London Second Language Acquisition Research Forum (2019-2021). She is also a founding member of the British Council Eye-tracking Special Interest Group. Currently, she serves as associate editor of The Language Learning Journal, and as a member of the advisory board of various academic journals.

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Ana Pellicer-Sánchez is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and TESOL at the Institute of Education in the Faculty of Education and Society at University College London (UCL), United Kingdom.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Friday Schedule

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