Language, Individual & Society, Volume 9, 2015

Abstract: Over the last decade, focus on vocabulary has greatly increased in English Language Teaching (ELT). The paper discusses the impact of reading contemporary literary prose, focusing on words that are not likely to be found in the course book, but only in materials related to real-life situations. The study referring to efficiency of acquiring everyday language has revealed that lexical units of contemporary literary texts are more challenging and attractive for ELT learners. The factors that seem to influence the approach of learners to vocabulary acquisition are the context-based naturalness of word stock and its linkage to real life. Learners are more engaged in reading literary texts as they want to satisfy their curiosity related to the plot and lexical units enable them to get answers to their questions concerning real-life problems.