Chinese EFL Learners' Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Through Reading While Listening

It goes without saying that vocabulary plays an essential role in second language learning and use.The acquisition of vocabulary is an incremental nothing-partial-precise process by means of intentional learning and incidental acquisition which complement each other.Research has suggested that incidental acquisition is the most important source of vocabulary development after the 3,000 most frequently-used word families have been learned.The major mission of second language incidental vocabulary acquisition(IVA)research is to facilitate SL learners' IVA through language exposures like listening and reading.Most previous IVA studies focused on IVA through reading only(RO)mode with few investigating IVA through listening only(LO)mode and the learning outcome in the latter was much inferior to that through RO.An important reason is that SL learners are typically poorer listeners than readers with great trouble in recognizing words and comprehending sentences in the seamless flow of speech.External support is needed to improve their comprehension.Reading while listening(RL),a more widely used input mode,has been proved by much research to be effective in promoting comprehension.However,the IVA research through RL is few and far between and calls for further investigation.To fill the research gap and to benefit EFL teaching,the current research attempts to investigate Chinese university EFL learners' IVA through RL by combining experiments,questionnaires and interviews.The research questions are as follows:1.Is IVA through RL significantly better than the one through RO and LO?2.Will IVA be facilitated significantly if the target words are glossed in Chinese?3.Is IVA through RL highly correlated with SL learners' language proficiency, listening,reading and prior vocabulary knowledge?4.In RL,how do learners manage their attention? And how do they perceive RL?The second-year non-English majors from five parallel classes in a university in China were the participants of the study.The five classes were assigned as four experimental groups(EGs)and one control group(CG).Three of the four EGs received the input of three short passages of similar difficulty and with similar number of words,with ten target words embedded in each in RO,LO and RL modes respectively in different sequences.It was carefully arranged to make sure that every passage was exposed to two times,different from any other passage in terms of mode and sequence.The fourth EG was asked to read all the same three passages while listening to them two times for each.The only different condition was that all the target words were glossed in Chinese.The time allowed for input of the same passage was the same as defined by the LO mode.After the treatment,all the participants went through a comprehension test based on the three passages as told in advance to make sure that they focus on comprehension of the three passages.After the comprehension test,a surprise immediate posttest(IP)of the target words was carried out in the form of a modified VKS.Then subjects were asked to complete two questionnaires.Besides,24 subjects were interviewed for further information about their RL experience and their perception about RL.Two weeks after the treatment,all the participants took a delayed posttest(DP)about the same target words also in the form of VKS.The CG only took the vocabulary tests.In order to better control the variables,only 35 students were chosen randomly form each group for the subsequent data analysis.Statistical tools like SPSS,Excel 2007 and Word 2007 were used to analyze the collected data by means of within-subject and between-subject ANOVA,chi-square test of independence,Pearson correlation analysis etc.The main findings are as follows:1.IVA occurred in all the three modes with RL being the best followed by RO,and LO the worst.Comparatively,IVA through RL was significantly better than that through LO both in the IP and the DP,especially in facilitating the learning of word form and partial meaning.There was no significant difference between RL and RO in the IP,but in the DP,the vocabulary retention in RL was significantly better than that in RO,with notable difference in form recognition but not in semantic acquisition.2.In the IP,there was no significant difference between glossing and no-glossing groups in RL in general,but there was a significant difference in the DP.However,both in the IP and the DP,the subjects in the glossing group performed significantly better than the no-glossing group in semantic acquisition and retention.3.In RL mode,there was a significant medium positive correlation between learners' SL proficiency and IVA in both the IP and the DP,in both glossing group and no-glossing group,but correlation was hardly found between learners' prior vocabulary knowledge and IVA.However,as for no-glossing condition,reading correlated with IVA positively in medium and low degree respectively in both posttests.In the case of listening and IVA,it was just the other way round.In glossing condition,reading had an insignificant low positive correlation with the IP and significant medium positive correlation with the DP.In contrast,listening was in a significant positive medium correlation with the DP.4.In RL,learners were found to be selective in what they pay their attention to,and more often they paid attention to visual message.Their visual comprehension usually dominated their aural comprehension.Most of them preferred RL among the three modes.They perceived RL as a better mode to promote comprehension,vocabulary acquisition,to concentrate,and to make the experience more interesting etc.Unfortunately,RL has not been given to its full play in SL teaching and learning.The research findings are expected to give empirical support to college English teaching in China,especially in vocabulary instruction as to how to choose the right mode of language input and how to carry out efficient pedagogical intervention.Besides,they are expected to provide us a deep insight into the process of IVA and the factors which influence it,and the relationship between input and SLA in a broader sense.