The Effect Of Multiple-Choice Glosses In An Input-Output Cycle On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

This study investigates the effect of interventions in reading on lexical acquisition and retention in an input-output cycle on the theoretical basis of Involvement Load Hypothesis and Swain's Output Hypothesis. Multiple-choice glosses are chosen as an input enhancement and text reconstruction as an output task. The study explores not only into the effect of two types of reading interventions respectively but also the effect of the combination of two types on vocabulary acquisition and retention.One hundred and fifty-six first-year non-English majors were chosen for the study. They were randomly divided into four groups with 39 participants in each. With regard to the means of their English scores of the National University Entry Examination and another vocabulary level test, there was no difference of language proficiency among the four groups. All the four groups were asked to read the same passage (about 300 words) with 10 target words in it and answer some comprehension questions. The four groups were: the control group, the G only group ( multiple-choice glosses of the 10 target words were provided, no reconstruction tasks were asked to do), the R only group (the students were asked to reconstruct the text, no glosses were provided) and the G+R group (the students were asked to reconstruct the text with multiple-choice glosses of the 10 target words provided). After the papers were collected, all the participants were asked to take a vocabulary test (posttest) in order to check their acquisition of the 10 target words. A retention test was taken two weeks later with the same content.The results of the study points to three major findings. First, multiple-choice glosses lead to higher levels of lexical acquisition but this knowledge was not retained two weeks later. Second, output activities did not lead to higher levels of lexical acquisitionand retention. Third, the combination of multiple-choice glosses and output activities lead to higher levels of word acquisition and lexical retention. The results of the study support the Involvement Load Hypothesis to a greater extent than the Output Hypothesis.