Incidental Academic Vocabulary Learning Through Listening to Expert Interviews: Form, Grammar, and Meaning

Shoja, Leila; Karimi, Hadis

doi:10.22034/ijpie.2025.490726.1069

Incidental Academic Vocabulary Learning Through Listening to Expert Interviews: Form, Grammar, and Meaning

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Leila Shoja ¹

Hadis Karimi ²

¹ English Language and Literature, Ilam University, Ilam

² English Language and Literature Department, Ilam University, Ilam

10.22034/ijpie.2025.490726.1069

Abstract

Incidental vocabulary acquisition in EFL contexts has garnered significant scholarly attention. Most existing research has concentrated on reading as the primary avenue for learning, while investigations into listening have been restricted to specific contexts. Thus, this study aimed to explore the effectiveness of expert interviews, as a dialogic academic discourse, delivered via podcasts for incidental academic vocabulary learning among EFL learners, with an emphasis on form, grammar, and meaning. The research, involving 38 intermediate learners and adhering to a rigorous criterion-based procedure for podcast selection, was conducted in two phases. First, the participants took a pre-test, listened to the chosen podcasts containing the target academic words, and completed two post-tests. Second, a questionnaire was used to examine their attention and experiences. The results showed a significant increase in the learners' academic vocabulary knowledge after listening to the expert interviews. They also highlighted different levels of learning across the three dimensions of vocabulary knowledge. The participants found the interviews engaging, indicating their potential as a learning tool. The findings show that listening to expert interviews can improve academic vocabulary learning beyond meaning, improving learners' knowledge of form and grammar; this can promise implications for natural and instructed vocabulary learning.

Keywords

Academic vocabulary

EFL learners

E-learning

expert interviews

incidental vocabulary learning

Subjects

TALL

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