Language learners often encounter a high number of unfamiliar words during language learning, especially in reading, where the written text is considered to be the major source of vocabulary development. As a result, this present study aimed to examine the effects of such devices as Hungarian (L1) and English (L2) glosses in terms of incidental vocabulary acquisition. It was also investigated through a short questionnaire whether students’ and teachers’ have the same opinion on students’ reading habits as well as their preference for L1 or L2 glosses in the process of reading. 30 students and 10 teachers of English were chosen randomly from the same secondary grammar school for the research. The students were tested on immediate post-test and delayed post-test. The findings indicated that the students’ overall performance was not significantly influenced either by L1 and L2 glosses, but when the task was based on English definitions, in accordance with previous expectations, L2 glosses were more helpful. Therefore, it can be concluded that depending on the quality of the task, teachers must decide whether L1 or L2 glosses would be more beneficial. It also came to light that for productive vocabulary acquisition incidental vocabulary learning is not sufficient among pre-intermediate students of English, and new words must be encountered more often to be retrieved more deeply. As for reading, the questionnaires revealed that if students like reading in Hungarian, they equally like it in English, too. However, either English or Hungarian glosses are of greater help to them than printed dictionaries as students will not be deterred from reading in English as much as in the case of dictionary use.