Role of individual differences in incidental L2 vocabulary acquisition through listening to stories: metacognitive awareness and motivation

Abstract This study examined the moderating role of two individual difference factors, metacognitive awareness of listening and motivation, in young second language (L2) learners’ incidental vocabulary acquisition from listening to stories. Participants were 66 fifth-grade English as a Foreign Language learners in South Korea who were randomly assigned to one of two groups: listening to stories or control. A vocabulary meaning recognition test was administered as a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest. Self-reported questionnaires were employed to assess participants’ metacognitive awareness and motivation. Metacognitive awareness of listening, or more specifically, mental translation strategies, were shown to moderate the effects of treatment such that L2 learners who indicated greater awareness of translation strategies learned more vocabulary from listening to stories than L2 learners who had less awareness of these strategies. Motivation also moderated the effects of treatment such that L2 learners who had higher intrinsic motivation to learn English were able to acquire more vocabulary through listening to stories than learners who were less motivated.