Grabbed early by vocabulary: Nation’s ongoing contributions to vocabulary and reading in a foreign language

Abstract

“I was grabbed early [by vocabulary] and never let go. That’s why it’s difficult to explain why I enjoy working in this area. I just love doing it,” said Paul Nation (in Coxhead, 2005, p. 46). How many people get grabbed by an area of research, teaching, and learning that continues to engage interest and cause excitement after 30 years? In this article, I look at Paul Nation’s ongoing contributions to pedagogy in vocabulary and second language reading. I will focus on key questions from Nation’s research that support learning and teaching and contribute to our understanding of the lexical nature of texts.