The Effect Of Exposure Frequency On Second Language Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Through Reading

In 2002, Ellis put forward the frequency-based language learning theory. He claimed that frequency was the decisive factor in language acquisition, which brought about a hot debate in the accademic world. A large number of empirical studies abroad were conducted to explore the role of input frequency in second language acquisition, among which one of the hottest topics was about the role of input frequency in incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading. However, only a few empirical studies concerning this question were made in Chinese context.The present research explores the effect of exposure frequency on second language (L2) incidenal vocabulary acquisition through reading with the elementary Chinese learners of English as the subjects. The three research questions to be addressed in this study are:(a) Do elementary Chinese learners of English acquire vocabulary incidentally through reading short simplified passages? (b) What is the effect of exposure frequency on incidental acquisition of vocabulary through reading by Chinese elementary learners? and (c) How many encounters are needed for Chinese elementary learners to learn new words incidentally through reading?In order to explore the answers to those questions, an empirical study was conducted to gather information on L2 incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading. Students at Grade 3 of a junior middle school were selected as the participants who were randomly assigned into three experimental groups (E2, E6 and E10) and one control group. The three experimental groups read respectively 2,6 and 10 pieces of reading materials with one piece a day. Each reading material is composed of 10 short articles, each of which contains a different target word. Immediately after the whole reading treatment, a surprise vocabulary test with 10 test papers was administered to measure receptive and productive knowledge of word form, grammatical function, meaning, association and collocation of the 10 target words. The control group did not read anything and only took the test for productive knowledge of word form.The major findings of the present study are as follows:1. Elementary Chinese learners of English can incidentally acquire multiple aspects of word knowledge through reading short simplified articles. Learners tended to gain some partial knowledge of unknown words from limited exposures in contexts. Significantly greater gains were achieved in receptive tests than in productive tests on all of the five aspects of word knowledge measured.2. The size of correlations between exposure frequency and relative gains on each aspect of word knowledge measured indicates that exposure frequency takes a critical role in incidental vocabulary learning through reading. Both receptive and productive knowledge of word form, grammar, meaning, association and collocation tended to increase with the increase of exposure frequency. The higher the exposure frequency was, the larger the gains were achieved.3. The results of the present study support the finding of some previous studies that there is no set number of exposure frequency that will ensure acquisition. However, the results do indicate that if learners meet unknown words a minimum of six times during reading, sizeable growth of lexical knowledge may occur. A significant difference was found in lexical gains between 2 and 6 exposures and 2 and 10 exposures on each of the ten vocabulary knowledge measures while no significant difference was found between 6 and 10 exposures on all of the ten dependent measures.