In this study, university English as a Second Language (ESL) learners’ responses to 5 different types of text‐based vocabulary exercises were examined. The objective was to understand better how such exercises may promote different kinds of lexical processing and learning and to compare these outcomes with those from thematic reading for comprehension. The results support a view of vocabulary acquisition as an elaborative and iterative process and demonstrate the primary role of the tasks learners carry out with new words that they encounter. Tasks provide learners with varied and multiple encounters with given words that highlight different lexical features, promoting elaboration and strengthening of different aspects of word knowledge. The findings also provide insight into the nature of the advantages, found in previous research, of using text‐based vocabulary exercises together with a reading text as opposed to using multiple reading texts for the learning of particular words and their lexical features.
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