大多數的課程或教材在呈現詞彙的時候，會以語義組合呈現，例如：家庭成員、動物或星期，比較少課程會以一個主題來包含新詞。關於以主題組合的例子可以見這個網頁。
語言教師呈現詞彙的時候，以語義組合或主題組合來呈現比較好呢？Tinkham (1993)發現，當學習者以語義組合來學習新詞的時候會比較困難。Waring (1997)則發現日語母語者學習英語二語時，學習相關的詞彙組合，比起學習完全不相關的詞彙組合，前者比後者需要多花一半的時間。而Tinkham (1997)則發現語義組合對於學習有負面影響，而主題組合能夠促進學習。Olsen (1999)則發現挪威的英語二語學習者容易被語音相似而混淆，例如sea和see或want和won’t。
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