The Effects Of Glosses On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Through Reading

In the process of learning a second language, vocabulary size can influence learners' proficiency. Therefore, many researchers have focused their studies on second language vocabulary acquisition in foreign countries, and more and more researches on incidental vocabulary acquisition have been done in recent years. Many studies have shown that second language learners can acquire vocabulary incidentally in the process of listening, speaking, reading, or writing. Incidental acquisition is an effective way to enlarge vocabulary. At present, researches on incidental vocabulary acquisition are relatively few in China. Moreover, most of the researches chose advanced English learners (college or university students) as subjects, and there lacks researches on whether intermediate learners can acquire vocabulary incidentally. This research aims to explore whether intermediate learners with a vocabulary size less than 2000 can acquire vocabulary incidentally through reading, and which kind of glosses can better facilitate incidental vocabulary acquisition.One class in Grade 1 in a high school of Beijing was chosen as the subjects, and they were tested for six weeks. During the experiment, the subjects read altogether five reading texts with different forms of glosses (no glosses, Chinese single glosses, Chinese multiple-choice glosses, English single glosses, and English multiple-choice glosses), and received immediate vocabulary tests and vocabulary retention tests. Then, all the collected data was analyzed by SPSS - the software for data statistics and analysis.By analyzing the collected data, the researcher finds: 1) Learners with a vocabulary size less than 2000 can acquire vocabulary through reading; 2) Providing glosses to unknown words in reading can facilitate incidental vocabulary acquisition; 3) Different forms of glosses result indifferent incidental vocabulary acquisition, and English single glosses prove to be the most effective to facilitate incidental vocabulary acquisition; 4) The retention of the words acquired incidentally are different according to forms of glosses. The results of the retention test in English single glosses condition are the highest. However, the retention rate in no glosses condition is the highest, and that in Chinese multiple-choice glosses condition is the second highest.Different from former studies in which the subjects were advanced English learners, this research has selected high school students as subjects and investigated more forms of glosses, which is a beneficial complement to former studies, and enriches the researches on the effects of glosses on incidental vocabulary acquisition in China. Meanwhile, it can be an effective reference for selecting or editing English reading materials for English teachers, English learners and extracurricular English materials editors.Of course, there are still some limitations of this research, for example, the small size of subjects and the limited forms of glosses. In further study, the research will choose a more extensive size of subjects, and investigate the effects of more forms of glosses on incidental vocabulary acquisition.