目前，大眾所偏好的語言教學型式是以意義為基礎的學習(meaning-based learning)，在這樣的型式下，學習者是學習「使用語言特徵」(using language features)，而不是學習「語言特徵」(language features)，只有在需要的時候以輔助的方式給予補充。這樣子的語言教學型式為學習者建立聽、說、讀、寫四個基本能力以及語法結構或許有所助益，但是對於詞彙的學習，可能需要有不一樣的取徑才能讓學習者將注意力轉移到詞彙本身。
Laufer (2005) 提出幾個我們之所以應該要重視詞彙教學的原因：一、學習者如果理解整體文章所要傳達的意義之後，就不再注意特定詞語的精確意思；二、從脈絡中去猜詞語的意思有時候不太可靠，尤其當學習者對於論述所使用的詞語有超過2%是不認識時；三、如果詞彙的意義很容易從脈絡中被猜出或理解的話，學習者不會有較多的投入，於是也就容易忘記；四、在一個新的論述中接觸新的詞彙後需要在很短的時間內再一次接觸才不會忘記。如果要透過閱讀，想要在一週內遇到10次同一個詞語的話，通常一週應該要閱讀1到2本分級讀本。這是一般的學習者不會這麼做。雖然，我們有理由好好重視詞彙教學，但是現況是第二語言教師對於詞彙教學的重視很少(Folse, 2010) 或者對於詞彙教學的認識和有證據的研究仍存在落差(Rossiter,Abbott & Kushnir, 2016) 。
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