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The article focuses on a study which addressed the question of how language learners build their vocabularies. This research was conducted at Hunter College, New York City, which is a four-year liberal arts institution offering bachelor's and master's degrees within the City University of New York. The area chosen for investigation was anthropology, on the grounds that this subject would produce specialized vocabulary that could be expressed in the students' first languages without the use of loan words. Sections of the introductory anthropology course at Hunter College were surveyed to identify students who were still enrolled in, or had only recently completed, the College's ESL sequence and who had received at least a secondary education in their own country and in their own language. These students were given a preliminary vocabulary test taken from the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency. They were then asked to keep lists of difficult words and their guessed meanings as well. They were encouraged to express their guessed meanings as precisely as possible, using their first language for the purpose if they found it easier. The glossaries were then compared with the original words, with the help of informants who had native or native-like proficiency in both the students' first languages and in English.