Effects Of Different Advance Organizers On Grade Nine Students’ Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

One of the most crucial elements of English learning is vocabulary development,and incidental vocabulary acquisition is an important approach to expanding vocabulary size and enriching vocabulary knowledge,which has been a popular topic in recent years.The “advance organizer” is an introductory material presented before formal learning,which was proposed by Ausubel in 1960.It is widely used in various disciplines to help teachers enhance teaching effectiveness and promote students’ learning efficiency.In recent years,the English teaching studies related to the advance organizers have achieved great achievements in reading,listening,and vocabulary,but few studies focus on incidental vocabulary acquisition.Therefore,the author selects two advance organizers-video advance organizer and picture advance organizer to conduct a quasi-experimental study on incidental vocabulary acquisition.Based on Nagy’s Incidental Vocabulary Learning Hypothesis,Dual Coding Theory,and Visual Learning Theory,this study attempts to compare the different effects of video advance organizer with picture advance organizer on students’ incidental vocabulary acquisition.Hence,advance organizers are put to the author’s experiment to get answers to questions as follows:(1)What effects do different advance organizers have on students’ acquisition of target words’ receptive vocabulary knowledge?(2)What effects do different advance organizers have on students’ acquisition of target words’ productive vocabulary knowledge?(3)What effects do different advance organizers have on students’ retention of the target words?(4)What are students’ attitudes towards different advance organizers?90 grade nine students from two intact classes in Miluo Boya school have been selected for this study.These two classes are randomly assigned to the video group and the picture group,each class of 45 people.This study investigates the different effects of video advance organizer and picture advance organizer on grade nine students’ incidental vocabulary acquisition and retention by using the vocabulary knowledge scale and word form test,and explores students’ attitudes toward these two advance organizers through questionnaires.The following findings are generated from the SPSS.26 processing and analysis of the obtained data:(1)With the guidance of advance organizers,receptive vocabulary knowledge can be acquired,but there is no significant difference in acquiring word form and acquiring word meaning between the video advance organizer and the picture advance organizer.(2)With the guidance of advance organizers,productive vocabulary knowledge also can be acquired,and the video group outperforms the picture group.Meanwhile,there are significant differences in acquiring word form and acquiring word meaning between the video advance organizer and the picture advance organizer.(3)As for receptive vocabulary knowledge,the retention effect in form and meaning between the video advance organizer and the picture advance organizer is not significantly different.However,as for productive vocabulary knowledge,there are significant differences in retaining word form and retaining word meaning between the video advance organizer and the picture advance organizer.And retention in the video group is more stable than retention in the picture group.(4)The questionnaire results illustrate that most students are positive about the advance organizer on incidental vocabulary acquisition.The advance organizer is thought of as an effective way to obtain vocabulary knowledge,but the video advance organizer gets higher recognition than the picture advance organizer.Based on the results,the author concludes that the advance organizer,particularly the video organizer,has an advantage in incidental vocabulary acquisition.