Written Output Tasks And Second Language IVA

It goes without saying that vocabulary acts as a crucial role in language learning.As an essential part of language, vocabulary has been regarded as the foundation oflanguage learning. Since Swain (1985,1995) put forward the Comprehensible OutputHypothesis (COH), the scholars have carried out numerous and uninterruptedempirical studies on whether output can promote L2incidental vocabulary acquisition.A large number of empirical research results show that both oral output and writtenoutput have promoting effect on L2incidental vocabulary acquisition. However, fewstudies have discussed whether different written output tasks have different impact onL2incidental vocabulary acquisition. And the research regarding Chinese students asparticipants is much rarer. This study was designed to explore the effects of thewritten reconstruction output task and free writing output task in improving L2incidental vocabulary acquisition.Altogether80second-year EFL students from Shandong University of Financeand Economics participated in the empirical study. Two natural classes were randomlydivided into two experimental groups to perform the different written tasks. And thewhole experiment is made up of four stages: pretest, treatment, immediate test andtwo posttests. Twenty second-year students who did not take part in the empiricalexperiment took the pilot study to choose and decide ten target words. Through apretest before the experiment a conclusion was reached that the participants were onthe equivalent levels of vocabulary knowledge. And then the participants wererequired to perform two different written output tasks after reading the article theresearcher provided. After experimental treatment, all participants accepted twoposttests one a week later and the other four weeks later. The data collected throughthe vocabulary posttests were analyzed after the empirical experiment. Results of theposttests showed the following findings:(1) Written output tasks can facilitate theincidental vocabulary acquisition of participants.(2) There is a significant differencein IVA between written reconstruction output and free writing output. This study result accords with the findings of previous researchers that languageoutput can contribute to the L2incidental vocabulary acquisition. This empirical studyreveals that written reconstruction output task and free writing task have differenteffects in promoting L2incidental vocabulary acquisition. And then the researchfindings are discussed mainly from requirements of empirical study, distribution oflearners’ attentional resources and the perspective of cognition. Finally, thepedagogical implications and limitations of the present study are discussed and alsothe suggestions for further research are presented.