Empirical Study On Intentional And Incidental Vocabulary Learning Of College Non-English Majors

Vocabulary learning plays an important role in foreign language teaching. Since 1980s, more and more researchers have been done in vocabulary learning, among which intentional and incidental vocabulary learning have been very hot both home and abroad. Intentional vocabulary learning is intended learning of vocabulary. Contrast to intentional vocabulary learning, incidental vocabulary learning means that learners acquire vocabulary incidentally when performing other learning tasks, which are the main tasks' by-products of relevant tasks.The aim of this thesis is to make a comparison and analysis of intentional and incidental vocabulary learning from a perspective of information processing and the depth of processing. The author selected two classes of non-English sophomores from Changchun University of Science and Technology as subjects. Tests of target words were used as a main research method to find an appropriative vocabulary learning method. From analyzing the results by using SPSS 11.5, the author found that:1. Both the learning methods were available for subjects, but there were advantages and disadvantages in different phases of time.2. In the intentional vocabulary learning, good word retention effects can be achieved by subjects in a short time, but this superiority was reduced greatly as the time elapsed. Vocabulary size of the subjects influenced word retention effects greatly. Subjects showed their higher ability in producing word written form than those did in incidental vocabulary learning, but they showed their low ability in making sentences.3. In the incidental vocabulary learning, good word retention effects cannot be achieved by subjects in a short time, but forgetting seldom happened in one month later. Word retention effects were better or at least no worse than those in incidental vocabulary learning as time elapsed.Based on the results, the author proposed college non-English learners especially sophomores in China should learn vocabulary through intentional learning method and incidental learning complementally. Meanwhile, teachers should give some reading guidance and provide a beneficial foreign language learning environment.