Successful Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition: Contributing Factors

This book provides an interpretation of vocabulary acquisition from the perspective of adult language learners who have acquired a large vocabulary in a second language and reached their professional goals as immigrants. The author collected data from 20 professionally successful adult immigrants living in Canada, who are highly proficient in English. Using the grounded theory method, the book analyzes the factors that contribute to successful second language vocabulary acquisition by adult learners: naturalistic and instructed learning environments, language input, cultural and linguistic identity, motivation, personality traits, learning styles, aptitude, first language vocabulary, and learning strategies. The author proposes a theory of successful second language vocabulary acquisition and a profile of excellent vocabulary learners. This book should be useful to second language teachers and teacher trainees, learners, assessors, and researchers.