Effects Of Reading Tasks On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

Vocabulary is one of the basic elements of language and foundation of language learning. It has aroused the concern of many language teachers and linguists. Based on the results of in-depth studies from different points of view, linguists believe a large proportion of vocabulary is acquired incidentally. Laufer and Hulstijin (2001) proposed the Involvement Load Hypothesis from the motivational and cognitive point of view, which maintains that incidental vocabulary acquisition in reading is closely related to reading tasks. Different reading tasks can induce different degrees of cognitive processing in vocabulary and lead to different vocabulary acquisition results. The hypothesis claimed that the greater the involvement loads in vocabulary induced by a task, the better the vocabulary retention. The involvement load can be measured by three factors, i.e., need, search and evaluation.The present study was intended to further validate Involvement Load Hypothesis by analyzing the effects of different reading tasks on Chinese English majors' incidental vocabulary acquisition. It tried to establish the relative importance of the three components of the involvement load-need, search & evaluation and also to find out the effects of different types of tasks with the same involvement loads on learners' vocabulary retention. The experiment was conducted in a period of two weeks. 138 English major juniors from 5 intact classes in Central South University took part in the experiment. They were assigned to do five different reading tasks in normal class time. The subjects were unexpectedly tested on retention of the ten target words in an immediate test and a post test. The results were analyzed with the aid of SPSS.The results of the study partially support Involvement Load Hypothesis. Among the three components, evaluation is more important than need, which, in turn, is more important than search. Another finding is that task type can also be a determining factor in incidental vocabulary acquisition. Findings of the experiment indicate that Involvement Load Hypothesis calls for a lot of amendment.Based on the above conclusions, some pedagogical implications are made. After-reading tasks should be designed to help learners acquire vocabulary incidentally. Repeated exposures to target words are needed to make vocabulary acquisition easier. Teachers should design different types of tasks with different involvement loads according to the specific teaching program.This study has both theoretical and practical value. By clarifying the effectiveness of different learning tasks on incidental vocabulary learning, the present study hopes to make some contribution to second language pedagogy. However, further research is still desired to make the Involvement Load Hypothesis a more mature one.