An Empirical Study On The Effect Of Glosses On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Through Reading Of Senior One Students

Vocabulary is the essence of language learning. It is the basic unit of phrases, sentences and articles. To improve the learners'vocabulary level and to enlarge the learners'vocabulary are important and difficult in learning English. Nagy, Herman and Anderson proposed the Hypothesis of Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition in 1985, and nearly all the researchers of second language acquisition think that reading extensively is the main way of incidental vocabulary acquisition. In recent years, many researchers have done a lot in the incidental vocabulary acquisition. However, the influence of the ways of glosses in reading on the effect of incidental vocabulary acquisition is controversial. Proceeding from the incidental vocabulary acquisition, this study reviews the theories and some empirical experiments of incidental vocabulary acquisition, and compares the influence of three different ways of glosses: Chinese multiple-choice glosses, Chinese single glosses and no glosses, in the readers'process of senior high school students.The participants of this study are 162 students in Grade one from NO.1 Senior High School in Urumqi. They are divided into three groups: the group of Chinese multiple-choice glosses, the group of Chinese single glosses and the group of no glosses. The experiment includes: instant test of incidental vocabulary acquisition and time lag vocabulary test, and lasts for three weeks. During the first week, all the participants were given the vocabulary level test and target vocabulary test, and aims and contents of this experiment were introduced. During the second week, all the participants were given the incidental vocabulary acquisition test. During the last week, all participants were given the time lag vocabulary test. At last, the experiment data was analyzed through SPSS Microsoft and the conclusions were drawn as follows:(1) In instant vocabulary test after the experiment, Chinese multiple-choice glosses are more efficient in affecting incidental vocabulary acquisition.(2) In time lag vocabulary test, the three ways of glosses are significantly different. Chinese multiple-choice glosses are the most useful way in remembering acquired vocabulary among them, and Chinese single glosses are more useful than no glosses.(3) The number of vocabulary of senior high school students can influence the incidental vocabulary acquisition. The larger the number vocabulary of senior high school students is, the better their incidental vocabulary acquisition is. This study proves that Chinese multiple-choice glosses are effective in improving incidental vocabulary during the reading process. Meanwhile, it also provides an empirical evidence for acceptance and application of theory of incidental vocabulary acquisition. In practice, this study can not only provide some effective suggestions on vocabulary teaching, so as to improve the teaching effect, but also give some guidance for students to choose the way of vocabulary acquisition, enlarge their vocabulary and improve vocabulary learning efficiently.