The Effects Of Reading Tasks On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition In Second Language

Vocabulary plays an important part in a language, yet the questions of how to acquire and retain vocabulary effectively and how to put it into communicative use have haunted researchers. The questions concerning vocabulary acquisition process remain to be explored in the years to come.In mother-tongue setting, it seems that children can grasp words without much difficulty, while in second language learning environment vocabulary learning becomes a big headache. What lies behind this phenomenon? Many researchers such as Nagy, Herman and Anderson (1985) have conducted a research on how children acquired vocabulary and found that instead of direct vocabulary learning, large number of vocabulary have been acquired in an incidental manner. Thereafter, many applied linguists wonder whether vocabulary can be acquired in the same way in a second language learning environment such as China and have set out their exploration on such speculation (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001; Joe, 1998; Pulido, 2003).Some theories concerning vocabulary acquisition have emerged, among which Laufer's Involvement Load Hypothesis receives wide appreciation for its easy access to measurement. The theory holds that any task can induce some degree of involvement load; the more involvement load, the better acquisition and retention. Under this framework, my thesis seeks to find the most effective tasks which can stimulate better acquisition and retention and at the same time, to examine whetherlanguage proficiency, together with reading tasks, plays a role.Four tasks are chosen in this study: A. reading and answering questions (words in the passage are noted but unrelated to the questions); B. reading and answering questions (words in the passage are noted and related to the questions); C. reading and completing sentences (words in the passage are noted and related to the exercise); D. reading and translating sentences (words in the passage are not noted but related to the task). The four tasks are put in increasing order of involvement load. It is presumed that vocabulary acquisition and retention are also in increasing order.The data from the study is analyzed by SPSS, showing that in accord with the assumption, heavier loaded tasks can bring about better vocabulary gain and retention. While vocabulary gain varies under four tasks, but the difference is not statistically different. The results also show that in immediate test, Class A performs best with least involvement due to the positive effect of bold letters; while Class D did a poor job because of their tendency to avoid guessing words out in context. What's more, it also shows that receptive and productive word knowledge develop in an unbalanced way.If the goal of second language vocabulary acquisition can be realized incidentally in reading, language teachers in China can be greatly inspired as to use specific reading tasks to stimulate vocabulary learning, a supplementary way to the sole traditional direct learning. Students will benefit as well in regard to vocabulary learning in authentic contexts, reduced learning burden and increased learning motivation.