In recent years, second language vocabulary acquisition has become an increasingly interesting topic of discussion for researchers, teachers, curriculum designers, theorists, and others involved in second language learning. Part I provides a framework for the rest of the book by introducing the main dimensions of the topic: teaching techniques, testing principles, and learning processes. In so doing, it emphasizes those subtopics that have been given the most attention in the literature: (1) debates about different teaching methods, (2) the problem of how to test vocabulary knowledge in a valid yet practical way, (3) issues about the interrelationship of reading and word learning, in particular the effectiveness of contextual guessing, and (4) the role of detailed perceptual variables in the identification and misidentification of words. The range of topics runs from broad (e.g. general teaching approaches, global measures of lexical competence) to fine-grained (e.g., morphology, orthography).

Cheryl Zimmerman leads off with a historical survey of vocabulary teaching methods. Vocabulary is central to language, she notes, and words are of critical importance to the typical language learner. Nevertheless, researchers and teachers in the field of language acquisition have typically undervalued the role of vocabulary, usually prioritizing syntax or phonology as central to linguistic theory and more critical to language pedagogy. Zimmerman's chapter examines the position assigned to vocabulary within each of the major trends in language pedagogy, including the Grammar Translation Method, the Reform Movement, the Direct Method, the Reading Method and Situational Language Teaching, the Audiolingual Method, Communicative Language Approaches, the Natural Approach, and current proposals such as the Lexical Approach that stress the lexical nature of language and propose lexico-grammatical approaches to language instruction.