The lexicon of politics: The acquisition of English political language through informal learning on social media

This paper presents an empirical-experimental study examining whether, and to what extent, undergraduate students of Political Science at an Italian university acquire English socio-political lexis through informal exposure to online media. The study was conducted at the University of Pisa and involved a small sample of 31 second-year students, tested prior to their attendance of the official English Language course, in order to assess their extramural knowledge of specialised and semi-specialised vocabulary related to socio-political themes. Grounded in a broad conception of informal language learning as incidental, self-directed contact with the L2 in non-institutional contexts, the research hypothesises that regular engagement with authentic English-language media may contribute to the development of domain-specific lexical knowledge, even in the absence of an explicit learning intention. Data collection instruments included a placement test, a questionnaire on students’ online media habits, a general vocabulary test, and a purpose-built specialised vocabulary test. Preliminary results indicate that performance on the specialised vocabulary test is more strongly associated with learners’ overall English proficiency level than with the reported quantity of online media exposure. These findings offer initial insights into the role of informal media exposure in the acquisition of disciplinary lexis at university level.