Effects Of The Collaborative Continuation Task On L2 Vocabulary Learning

As a crucial part of language,vocabulary has been widely considered as the pillar of language acquisition.Over the past three or four decades,it has become a burgeoning frontier in the field of second language acquisition(SLA).Although empirical studies have been conducted to explore the efficacy of various types of tasks on L2 vocabulary learning,there is still no agreement on what type of tasks has greater facilitative effect.The reading-writing continuation task and collaborative writing,both focusing on the effect of interaction on L2 learning,have been the major topics of constant empirical and theoretical attention in L2 writing research.While the former promotes written performance by the alignment between learners and input texts,the latter encourages constant interpersonal interaction to facilitate L2 learning.Empirical support has been found for the two tasks in terms of their facilitative roles in L2 acquisition.Noting that interaction is important for language learning,the introduction of interpersonal interaction into the continuation task may improve its effectiveness.In order to test the hypothesis,the current study integrates the continuation task and collaborative writing into the collaborative continuation task and investigates its effectiveness in L2 learning.In specific,the current study focused on the acquisition of L2 vocabulary,seeking to address the following two research questions:(1)Does the collaborative continuation task as compared to the individual continuation task have a different effect on learners’ use of the target words in their continuations? If so,what exactly are the differences?(2)Does the collaborative continuation task as compared to the individual continuation task have a different effect on L2 vocabulary learning outcomes? If so,what specific aspects of vocabulary learning are different when learners complete the collaborative continuation task compared to the individual continuation task?In order to address the above questions,an empirical study has been designed and carried out with 94 non-English majors as the participants.These participants,with no significant difference in English proficiency,were from three parallel classes taught by the same English teacher.After the phase of training,one of the class was randomly assigned to complete the continuation task individually,while the other two collaboratively in 14four-member groups.Both groups were required to write continuations of at least 300 words with 10 target words.Five learners were randomly selected from the individual continuation group to conduct a think-aloud task.The entire process of completing the task and the thinkaloud process were recorded.All participants were distributed with an immediate posttest upon the task and a delayed posttest one week after the treatment.The findings of the present study showed that the collaborative continuation task can help L2 learners monitor the continuation process,thus strengthening their alignment with the source texts through peer interaction,and improving the efficiency of L2 vocabulary learning.Its facilitative effects are obviously manifested in learners’ continuations and vocabulary tests:(1)the target words were used significantly more frequently,accurately and creatively when participants did the continuation task collaboratively in groups than when they performed the task individually;(2)as compared with taking the continuation task individually,completing the task collaboratively have better facilitative effects on L2 vocabulary learning in terms of word form,meaning,as well as usage.The results of the present study attribute a positive role to the collaborative continuation task in the acquisition of L2 vocabulary,providing empirical evidence for the xu-argument to L2 vocabulary research,thus helping broaden the scope of research on the continuation task and collaborative writing.A discussion of the results reveals that it is the integration of intrapersonal interaction and interpersonal interaction that facilitates L2 vocabulary learning by improving the interactional intensity and alignment magnitude during the continuation process.Pedagogically,this study develops a new form of writing activity,the collaborative continuation task,for L2 teachers to employ in vocabulary teaching and writing pedagogy in order to improve vocabulary learning efficiency.