Task-Induced Involvement Load & L2 Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Under Different Input Modes

The issue of L2 vocabulary acquisition calls for substantial further research in that it is still far from clear how learners acquire vocabulary or how it can be best taught. The feasibility and effectiveness of incidental vocabulary acquisition through visual reading input have been found in many cases of experimental research, while research on incidental vocabulary acquisition (IVA) through auditory or listening input seemed to have been much ignored. Some researchers indicated ways in which vocabulary retention performance could be enhanced through manipulation of various word/text/task factors to provide optimal support for learners'better retention performance. Research findings and cognitive theories point to the fact that differing processing depth involved in the completion of the orienting tasks is determinant in the efficacy of the word retention performance. Higher processing depth contributes to better language acquisition performance. However, it is no easy task to define and measure the depth of processing. B. Laufer and J. H. Hulstijn (2001) proposed the task-induced involvement load hypothesis (ILH) which incorporated and integrated certain cognitive and motivational learning factors and made it easier to investigate into the effect of involvement load on IVA word retention performance. The present study is set to investigate the validity of ILH in incidental English vocabulary acquisition under different stimulus input modes (namely, auditory mode and visual mode) with those experimented non-English-major EFL Chinese college students. The present study has not only testified ILH in this EFL-IVA practice under the reading input mode, but also proved the validity of ILH as well as the feasibility of their IVA through the listening input mode. Higher involvement load has been proved to have generated significantly better IVA word retention performance. Very much like the previously proven positive correlation between the reading comprehension task performance and the IVA word retention performance, the present study found significant positive correlation between the listening comprehension and word retention performances.