Does reading for pleasure support vocabulary learning? A naturalistic experiment to test the link between print exposure and vocabulary gain

Vocabulary is vital for accessing learning, yet marked vocabulary differences are apparent at school entry and closely linked to social disadvantage. Vocabulary knowledge can be taught directly, but this is time consuming and even the most ambitious programme could not cover all of the word meanings that are needed to access curriculum texts. A key route to vocabulary learning is independent reading. However, adolescents rarely read in their own time. To increase independent reading in this group, we have adapted a well-established behavior-change intervention as a novel way to encourage adolescents to read more. The intervention will involve goal-setting, feedback on this goal via text-messages, and rewards. We will also provide participants with commercially available fiction books to read in their own time, creating a natural setting for the intervention, whilst also tracking the words they encounter and learn.