| Incidental vocabulary acquisition has always been the topic in the field of second language acquisition research. In recent years, scholars have begun to undertake their study on the effect of listening, speaking, reading and writing on the incidental vocabulary acquisition. Among them, a large body of research has focused on the effect of reading on the incidental vocabulary acquisition, but the amount of the research conducted from the perspective of reading texts is limited in China. The author of this paper carries out the research on the influence of textual enhancement and elaboration on the L2 incidental vocabulary acquisition.Sixty non-English major students who are freshmen in Donghua University were involved in the study. They were divided into six groups, with 10 participants for each group. Analysis of Variance of the results of the standard proficiency test taken by these subjects indicates that the six groups show no significant difference in their English language proficiency. In the process of the research, the author adopted six kinds of texts, namely "bold—elaborated", "bold—unelaborated", "red—elaborated","red—unelaborated", "highlighted—elaborated",and "highlighted—unelaborated". The subjects of each group were exposed to one kind of text and were required, after reading the text within limited time, to take a vocabulary form-and meaning-recognition test. After the test,18 of them were randomly chosen to have an interview, the purpose of which is to learn about their attitudes toward textual enhancement and elaboration in their reading texts. One week later, the author of this paper administered a vocabulary form- and meaning-recognition delayed posttest. Then she conducted an interview with all the sixty participants to identify their ideas about these six kinds of reading texts so as to offer an explanation of the data collected from the experiment. The data from the research were analyzed by Computer software SPSS 13.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The results indicate that (1) Elaboration produces a remarkable influence on both immediate and delayed vocabulary form- and meaning-recognition; (2) Textual enhancement and the interaction of textual enhancement and elaboration make a great impact only on immediate vocabulary form-recognition. In textual enhancement, "bold" produces the greatest influence and markedly different from "red". In their interaction, "bold—elaborated" has the most remarkable influence and is significantly different from "bold—unelaborated", "red—elaborated", and "red—unelaborated"; (3) In terms of vocabulary form- and meaning- retention, there is no marked difference among six groups.It is the author's hope that the present study will to some extent make a positive contribution to the English teaching and learning. Both teachers and editors should take textual features into account when they design or choose the reading materials and textbooks for their students so that the students may acquire a larger L2 vocabulary through reading and improve their English.This thesis is composed of seven chapters. Chapter one introduces the significance and objective of the research and the organization of the thesis. Chapter two briefly describes the theories adopted in this study. Chapter three gives a comprehensive review of the previous researches undertaken both at home and abroad in the aspect of textual enhancement, elaboration and L2 incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading. Chapter four is aimed at clarifying the details about research methodology. Chapter five displays the major findings and chapter six is a discussion on the research questions based on the analysis of the results. The final chapter includes the summary of major findings, pedagogical implications as well as the limitations of the research and suggestions for further study. |
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