The Effects Of Textbook Input Requency On L2 Vocabulary Acquisition

Frequency is an indispensible component of theories of language acquisition and is extensively applied in the language classroom. However, little research has been conducted on this topic in China—the effects of textbook input frequency on L2 vocabulary acquisition (SLVA). This thesis specifically centers on two issues:(1) The relationship between input frequency and SLVA;(2) Factors affecting the efficacy of input frequency.238 freshmen from two universities participated in the vocabulary test. Data analysis was made of the test results both quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative analysis detected the overall tendency of changes that input frequency brought to SLVA. Intra-/inter-group comparisons were made to reveal the variations. Qualitative analysis supplied the details of how and why the changes occurred. Data analysis yielded the following findings:(1) As input frequency increases, the correction rate of target words also increases. Therefore, input frequency does play facilitative roles in L2 vocabulary acquisition.(2) The average acquisition rate of tested words with 6 occurrences and beyond is above 50%. By contrast, the mean acquisition rate of tested words below 6 occurrences does not reach 50%. The result suggests that 6 recurrence rate can be viewed as the threshold for L2 vocabulary acquisition.(3) There are some exceptional problems that input frequency theory cannot fully interpret. For example, the acquisition rates of some low frequency words are far above those of some high frequency words. Secondly, why are some low frequency words acquired by the students? Next is the problem—what prevents the students from retaining those words which they had met before in the textbook? Last but not least is why some untaught words are acquired by the students.(4) In view of the complexity, intra-/inter-group analysis should be performed to interpret the complexity of input frequency. Within groups, all the three classes have some common problems:high frequency cannot guarantee high retention rate, yet low frequency sometimes does enjoy high retention rate; some words were once met by students, but failed to "stick" in their minds; and still some untaught words were unexpectedly acquired by the testees. With data analysis and a follow-up interview, causes leading to the first question are as follows:a) students did not give due attention to the wordlist and take effective measures to retain the target vocabulary; b) some words are not salient enough to be noticed for lack of typographical cues; c) the recycling rates of some high frequency words were not as high as theoretically supposed for not all of the texts were explained in detail on the teacher's part; d) some students were not highly motivated to acquire the target words. Explanations for the second question go like these:a) some low frequency words were acquired by the testees before their entry into the university; b) students picked up some words through other channels such as out-of-class readings and music. Though some students claimed to have met some words, some factors resulting in their forgetting are a) some words with high frequency spread unevenly over the texts, thus hampering the retention of them; b) intralexical factors—length, morphology, synformy and semantic properties also intervene in the process of L2 vocabulary acquisition, which is true of intralingual, interlingual and instructional factors. With regard to the last question, morphological knowledge was utilized by students to infer the meaning of some untaught derived words.(5) Between groups, Class 1 outperformed the other two classes in the vocabulary test for the amount of time involved in English and students' desire to study overseas; Class 3 moved ahead of Class 2 after a semester while the admission score is well below that of Class 2, one possible reason for this phenomenon is that students of Class 3 invested more time and energy in English.Research findings yielded from this study have pedagogical as well as theoretical implications for ESL teaching in China, though some limitations still exist in our study. Therefore, some suggestions for future study are offered.