The Role Of Task Type,Personality Traits,and CMC Competence In Vocabulary Acquisition In SCMC

With the rapid development of network and computer technology,computer-mediated communication(CMC)has gradually entered the field of foreign language teaching,which is not only an integral part of online courses,but also an auxiliary teaching method in traditional classrooms.In the context of task-based synchronous CMC,this paper attempted to study the role of task type,personality traits,and CMC competence in learners’ participation in synchronous CMC and their vocabulary acquisition.It also discussed whether students’ communicative participation can successfully predict their vocabulary acquisition.This paper took 120 freshmen English majors as research object.They were divided into two groups to carry out text-based SCMC,completing the information gap task and decision-making task respectively.The target vocabularies in each task were the same eight words.The whole experiment lasted for five weeks.Participants took classes once a week.In the first week,the participants received an introduction and training about the experiment.In the second and third weeks,the practice of each meaning negotiation task was carried out.In the fourth week,the Big Five Personality Inventory and CMC competence measure were completed online,and the vocabulary pretest was carried out.In the fifth week,the formal CMC tasks and immediate vocabulary post-test were carried out.This study analyzed the data by correlation analysis,path analysis and independent sample t-test,and drew the following two conclusions:(1)among the three latent variables,personality traits can predict CMC involvement and vocabulary acquisition.More open and more conscientious learners tend to have better vocabulary performance,and more open learners have higher participation in CMC;(2)in this experiment,learners’ CMC participation didn’t show causal relationship with their vocabulary achievement.This means there are multiple possibilities for learners to participate in CMC.Students may engage in CMC invalidly or may remain silent but carefully monitor the conversation process.Therefore,this study proposed that teachers should cultivate learners’ excellent qualities such as curiosity,conscientiousness and concentration,encourage high quality participation in CMC,and provide learners with more opportunities to experience the social and cultural context of the target language.