The Effects Of Receptive Learning And Productive Learning On Chinese College Students' Acquisition Of Five Aspects Of Vocabulary Knowledge

In the field of second language vocabulary acquisition, the efficacy-comparison of different vocabulary learning tasks still holds numerous researchers' attention. The receptive vocabulary learning tasks are preferred by EFL teachers to productive vocabulary learning tasks in classroom setting. However related research indicated that productive vocabulary learning tasks might be more effective in enhancing word knowledge gains.The sole aspect of word knowledge measured in most of these studies was meaning and form. However, currently more and more researchers tend to support that knowing a word involves much more than simply knowing its meaning and form. Since very few empirical studies have examined the effects of receptive learning and productive learning on the acquisition of multiple aspects of word knowledge, the present author has the interest to probe into it.This thesis empirically explores the effects of the receptive vocabulary learning and productive vocabulary learning on five aspects of vocabulary knowledge. The subjects, Chinese college learners studying English as a foreign language, were assigned to learn 20 target words in three glossed sentences and in a sentence production task in this experiment. Five aspects of vocabulary knowledge (orthography, syntax, association, grammatical function and meaning and form) were each measured by five receptive and five productive knowledge tests.60 subjects were involved in the experimental group. The study used a within group design, that is to say, one experimental group completed two tasks. The subjects were asked to start the second task as soon as they have finished the first one. Time spent on each task was only enough and not controlled. After a 10-minute distracter period, the subjects were given ten tests which measured isolated knowledge of ten aspects. One week later, a follow-up testing was administered with an adjusted version of ten tests. The statistical techniques performed for analysis were compare means, repeated-measures of MANOVA.Through the interpretation of the quantitative and qualitative results, the author reaches the following conclusions:(1) The receptive vocabulary learning was not so conducive to Chinese college English learners'five aspects of receptive knowledge gains than that of the productive vocabulary learning; (2) The productive vocabulary learning was more conducive to Chinese college English learners'five aspects of productive knowledge gains than that of the receptive learning; (3) Chinese college English learners gained significantly more knowledge in all 10 tests from the productive learning task than from the receptive learning task in the immediate testing; (4) Chinese college English learners still gained significantly more knowledge in all 10 tests from the productive learning task than from the receptive learning task in the follow-up testing.This study further enriches the previous empirical evidence. It can also help EFL teachers and learners to realize that vocabulary instruction and learning should not only focus on vocabulary size expansion but also on simultaneous learning of multiple aspects of vocabulary knowledge. It also offers some insights for Chinese college English vocabulary learning and instruction.