Abstract

This study investigates whether informal engagement with special-interest content can foster the acquisition of specialised English vocabulary and how such learning is shaped by individual and experiential factors. One hundred and forty-six Italian university students, who had received only general-purpose English instruction, completed a background questionnaire, a general Vocabulary Size Test (VST), a specialised VST targeting cooking terminology (with accuracy and reaction times), and a figurative-language interpretation task. The specialised test contained 120 cooking-related items (verbs, nouns and adjectives) sampled from B1–C2 levels and presented in a four-option multiple-choice format. Results show substantial knowledge of specialised culinary vocabulary despite the absence of formal instruction, with a clear proficiency gradient and a verb advantage across levels. At lower proficiency levels, specialised scores were strongly associated with general vocabulary size and with self-reported intensity of exposure to English-language videos. Regression analyses indicated that specialised knowledge was best predicted by proficiency, reading in English and domain-specific habits (e.g., language of recipes), whereas the same variables explained little variance in general vocabulary. Reaction-time data suggested partial “automatisation” of specialised items, particularly for intermediate learners. Figurative-language performance revealed that, for many participants, specialised lexical representations were sufficiently deep to support interpretation in novel, non-literal contexts, especially when learners frequently followed recipes or watched cooking videos in English. The findings highlight both the potential and the limits of learning specialised vocabulary through informal digital practices and point to ways in which formal instruction can systematically build on learners’ extramural experiences.

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