Edinburgh Applied Language Seminars (EALS)
October 10th(4pm to 5.30pm in Paterson’s Land LG34 Moray House School of
Education (The University of Edinburgh, Holyrood Campus).
Dr Kenneth Fordyce
University of Edinburgh
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Harry Potter and the Incidental Acquisition of Vocabulary
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This presentation demonstrates how a second language teacher can combine the roles of teacher,
materials developer, and researcher in the ongoing and iterative development of language courses. I
will first describe the development of EFL courses based on novels and their film adaptations. The
second part of the presentation will report on research conducted within the context of these courses
which focused on vocabulary learning and the influence of two key variables (input frequency and type
of instruction) on vocabulary development.
The teaching context is a Japanese university with learners who have predominantly learnt language
through intensive reading and translation. An initial attempt to encourage learners to engage in
extensive reading eventually lead to the development of entire courses of study based around Harry
Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (by J.K.Rowling), About a Boy (by Nick Hornby), and Remains of
the Day (by Kazuo Ishiguro). These courses covered the four skills, vocabulary, grammar,
pronunciation and pragmatics, and replaced the use of traditional textbook materials.
At the same time, in collaboration with a graduate student (Warren Tang), I conducted several quasiexperimental studies (pre-/post-test designs with intact classes) looking at whether: (1) explicit
instruction increased the likelihood of students learning new words in the course text; (2) the input
frequency of new words in the text played a significant role in vocabulary learning. I will report on the
complex findings from these studies which provide strong evidence for the role of input frequency but
weaker support for the value of explicit vocabulary instruction.
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Kenneth Fordyce is a Lecturer in TESOL in the Institute of Education, Teaching and Leadership at Moray House School of
Education, Edinburgh University. He previously taught at Hiroshima University, Japan for over 10 years, and completed a
PhD in Applied Linguistics at Lancaster University in 2011. His thesis focused on the relative effects of explicit and implicit
instruction on second language development in the use of epistemic stance. He is currently developing plans to investigate
the degree to which second language learners’ productive and receptive knowledge of formulaic sequences relates to the
ability to study successfully (or not) in British university contexts.