The present study utilizes traditional silent reading and a
think-aloud procedure to investigate the role of lexical cues to meaning
in the incidental acquisition of the Spanish future tense. A total of 161
beginning-level university students of Spanish participated in the study.
Two versions of a reading passage that contained 13 target items were
created: One version contained a title and lexical temporal indicators
(LTIs) in each sentence that contained a target verb, whereas the passage
appeared with no title and no lexical cues in the second version. Both
procedures employed the same tasks to measure the effects of LTIs on
learner comprehension and processing of the 13 novel forms. The tasks were
scored and submitted to statistical analysis. Results indicate that for
both the silent reading and the think-aloud conditions, LTIs augment
learner comprehension and do not detract from learners' noticing of
forms. Furthermore, the text interaction format of the think-aloud
protocol was found to significantly enhance recognition and production of
the previously unfamiliar forms in the input.I wish to thank James F. Lee, who guided me through the
realization of this project and continues to provide intellectual support.
Additionally, I appreciate the feedback and encouragement provided by
Kimberly Geeslin, who read many versions of this article. This
investigation was supported by the University of Kansas New Faculty
General Research Fund. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the anonymous
SSLA reviewers for their insightful criticisms and comments. All
errors are my own.