對於剛開始學習第二語言的學習者的詞彙學習，有兩個比較明顯的特徵：一、他們能夠聽、說、讀、寫的詞彙是幾乎一致的；二、初期的詞彙都只是將學習者既有的概念和一個新的標籤連結在一塊而已。
這樣子的特徵和學習第一語言詞彙是有很大的差別的。在第一語言的時候，聽、說、讀、寫的詞彙是有很大的差異的(Deighton, 1960)；而且，學習一個新的標籤時，也同時學得一個新的概念(Mezynski, 1983)。
一開始學習第二語言的時候，我們會覺得自己進步飛快，但是當學習者要從初階閱讀到進階閱讀的時候，學習的困難就會發生了。剛開始學習第二語言的時候，學生所閱讀的是經過簡化的文本，但是當學生開始接觸未經簡化的真實文本時，接觸的單字不再由教科書所控制。也由於學習者所閱讀的文本通常是缺乏背景知識的文本，例如標的語人們的文化或風俗，於是學習者會開始認為學習第二語言不再如同一開始那樣容易。
一但過了上面的階段，學習第二語言詞彙的方式就會更接近第一語言的方式。學習者不再只是學一個已知概念的標籤，同時要學會新的概念。
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