Issues in Applied Linguistics

Viewing the process of lexical acquisition as a joint activity, this study proposes an alternative to the dominant approaches to lexical acquisition. Based on longitudinal data, it discusses the various types of conversational exchanges in which new words are introduced in everyday interaction. By exploring the full range of explicit lexical introductions, this study also points out the limitations of many experimental studies. In particular, the types of introduction often examined in experimental studies—namely, adult-initiated labeling, anchoring, and explanation—account for only 8% of all the explicit introductions identified in this study. Other types of explicit introductions, such as repairs, are examined in the context of introducing verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and prepositions. I suggest that by using experiments to determine if there is a correlation between the rate of uptake and the type of introduction, it is possible to explain why words belonging to certain grammatical categories are learned before others.