Comparison Between Exposure Quality And Quantity In The Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition: An Empirical Study On The Involvement Load Hypothesis

It is the consensus that reading is one of the most effective ways to promote incidental vocabulary acquisition (IVA), and multiple exposures to the target lexical form could also enhance the likelihood of the lexical form's retention. The theory of involvement load hypothesis claims a positive correlation between the involvement index of reading tasks and the incidental vocabulary acquisition (IVA). The subjects of the current study are sophomores of non-English majors from a university at Hefei. The aim of the study is to test the validity of the hypothesis itself, and to compare the effectiveness of tasks with three exposures and one point of involvement load index, and that of tasks with one exposure but three points of involvement load index. Through the statistical analysis of both immediate recalls and delayed tests, the result validates the involvement load hypothesis. It proves that both exposure quantity and quality facilitate incidental vocabulary acquisition, and there is no significant difference between the two models in promoting incidental vocabulary acquisition statistically.