Empirical Study On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Of Non-English Majors

The prominent role of vocabulary in foreign language learning has been widely recognized by learners. Furthermore, the issue of vocabulary acquisition is currently receiving more attention in second language pedagogy and research. But it is still far from clear how learners acquire vocabulary or how it can be best taught.There is general consensus among L2 vocabulary experts that extensive reading for meaning leads to vocabulary acquisition over time because direct vocabulary instruction cannot account for a significant proportion of the words learners acquire. While recognizing the importance of incidental vocabulary development, some L2 vocabulary research also pointed out its shortcomings. So some researchers have indicated ways in which reading-based vocabulary development can be enhanced through manipulation of various word, text and task factors to provide optional support for successful vocabulary learning by learners. And research has also indicated that L2 reading plus related vocabulary activities might be one appropriate way to direct and enhance the effects of incidental learning from reading. Thus, there has been considerable empirical research on tasks and incidental vocabulary acquisition. In explaining the superiority of one task over another, most researchers suggested that the more effective task required a deeper level of processing of the new words than the other task. To translate and operationalize the general cognitive notions, depth of processing and elaboration, in terms of L2 vocabulary learning tasks, Hulstijn and Laufer (2001) proposed the Involvement Load Hypothesis for L2 vocabulary learning. Hulstijn and Laufer conducted two parallel experiments to investigate the validity of the hypothesis. The results of Hulstijn and Laufer (2001)'s first experiment fully supported the hypothesis while those of the second experiment partially supported it, which points to the compelling need for further research. Therefore, the first aim of this study was to explore an effective way of vocabulary learning; and in turn investigate the efficacy of the involvement load on the effectiveness of different L2 vocabulary learning tasks, and thus provide further empirical evidence to the Involvement Load Hypothesis.In this study, two intact classes of freshmen majored in pre-school education in Wenzhou University participated during normal class time. All of the 52 subjects in control class were asked to perform Task 1 (reading and multiple-choice questions to check subjects' comprehension); while all of the 50 subjects in experiment class were asked to do Task 2 (reading and retelling the main idea to other group members). According to Swain's Output Hypothesis, output may influence noticing and promote L2 acquisition, and the Involvement Load Hypothesis task 1 inducing lower involvement load than task 2.the author explored the following questions in the study:1) Do college students acquire words incidentally through extensive reading?2) Do words processed with higher involvement load be retained better than words that are processed with lower involvement load? (The hypothesis deriving from this question is that the retention scores of the target words will be higher in Task 2 than it in Task 1)3) If so, do different involvement load affect the retention of different kinds of words: receptive words and productive words? And if so, what are they?The experiment of the present study conducted for 13 weeks in normal class time. Both the subjects in control class and the experiment class were given the reading material once every week, in which the reading materials were handed out to them and the subjects in control class and the experiment class were asked to finish the corresponding tasks within the given time. After 13 weeks experiment, all the subjects were unexpectedly given a post-test in which they were required to provide Chinese translation or English explanations and if possible a sentence to make for a list of 20 target words which were chosen from the reading materials they were asked to read.The data in the present research showed that: 1) college students can acquire vocabulary incidentally more or less; 2) words that were processed with higher involvement load were retained better than words that were processed with lower involvement load. To be more specific, the results of the experiment fully supported the Involvement Load Hypothesis; 3) different tasks with different involvement load affect the receptive and productive words retention differently: task two works more efficiently in productive words retention. However, because of the instrument measuring the word knowledge, the author failed to get the data to compare how well each task effect and unfortunately no data comparison to tell if it is a null hypothesis or to conclude it is probably not true.To sum up, vocabulary learning is a rather complicated course which consists of many factors; further research in this field tends to device tasks with different load to compare more their effect on incidental vocabulary acquisition.