A Comparative Study Based On The Involvement Load Hypothesis Into The Effects Of Different Post-listening Output Tasks On Second Language Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

Incidental vocabulary acquisition is considered as an effective and available method to learn vocabulary in a second language(L2).As an important hypothesis of incidental vocabulary acquisition,the Involvement Load Hypothesis proposed by Laufer & Hulstijn(2001)is especially valued and has aroused widespread interest among L2 researchers.Nevertheless,studies investigating Involvement Load Hypothesis are mostly confined to reading input,and such factors as task orientations(input/output)are not yet unified.Given the issues addressed above,the current study attempts to,verify the effectiveness of Involvement Load Hypothesis on incidental vocabulary acquisition with an empirical experiment on post-listening output tasks.In the study,such output post-listening tasks as gap-filling,translation and sentence-making were assigned to 90 sophomores of English major who were divided into three groups.The three-week experiment aimed to,according to the Involvement Load Hypothesis,find out the effects and the differences of different post-listening output tasks on immediate vocabulary acquisition and vocabulary retention in such vocabulary knowledge dimension as productive knowledge of orthography,receptive recall of meaning and form as well as productive knowledge of grammatical functions.The results of the study showed that post-listening output tasks have positive effects on immediate acquisition of productive vocabulary knowledge.To be more specific,tasks induced same involvement load result in similar vocabulary learning among the three dimensions of vocabulary knowledge,while tasks induced higher involvement load reveals no better vocabulary acquisition,which has partially agreed and supplemented the content of the Involvement Load Hypothesis.The results of the delayed post-tests showed the effects of the tasks on vocabulary retention are in accordance with the Involvement Load Hypothesis only on productive knowledge of orthography,but the retention of the other two dimensions of vocabulary knowledge were not in line with the Involvement Load Hypothesis.Theoretically,the findings of this study tend to query the Involvement Load Hypothesis by demonstrating that involvement load is not the only determining factor,and the theoretical construction of the involvement load should be more specific.The pedagogical implication of the study can be summarized as that teachers should combine listening class with suitable post-listening output tasks to facilitate vocabulary knowledge learning in various dimensions.