A Study Of The Effects Of Task Types On Incidental Vocabulary Learning

Vocabulary is an essential component of language and vocabulary studies have alwaysbeen a focal point of second language acquisition. Accordingly, incidental vocabularylearning has been a hot point in the field of vocabulary studies. For many years,researchers have made tremendous efforts to study incidental vocabulary learning underdifferent conditions and in different ways. Some of the studies aim to compare theeffectiveness of different tasks and explore the underlying philosophy that affects it. In2001, Hulstijn and Laufer put forward the involvement load hypothesis to address thisissue. In their view, the retention of unfamiliar words is generally conditional upon thedegree of involvement in processing these words. The higher the level of the involvementload, the more effective the task is in promoting vocabulary learning. Some studies are alsomade to compare the effectiveness of input tasks and output tasks so as to highlight theimportance of output in second language acquisition.Following previous researches, the present study intends to examine how differenttasks affect the initial learning and retention of the target words by L2learners, particularlylow and high achievers. In order to achieve this purpose, the present study mainly adopteda quantitative approach in the form of an experiment, where three groups of subjects(N=119) were asked to fulfill three different tasks: reading only, gap-filling andsummary-writing. To elicit the data, the author administered three tests (one pretest andtwo posttests) to the subjects. What’s more, within each task group, the subjects werefurther divided into two subgroups, the low achievers and the high achievers. Thencomparisons were made between different subgroups to see if different tasks have differentinfluence on different subjects. The results of the experiment are discussed from twoperspectives, namely, the perspective of involvement load hypothesis and the perspectiveof output hypothesis. An interview was also conducted to gather detailed information aboutsubjects’ learning process.The major findings of the study are as follows:First, different tasks have different effects on initial vocabulary learning and retention.Among the three tasks tested, reading only is the least effective, summary-writing is themost effective, and the effect of gap-filling is in between. From the perspective of involvement load hypothesis, the three tasks represent three degrees of involvement. Theresults show that the more involvement there is, the more effective a task is. From theperspective of output hypothesis, reading only can be regarded as input-based, andsummary-writing as involving output. Results show that output tasks are more effectivethan input tasks.Second, different tasks have different effects on low achievers and high achievers.Within each task group, the high achievers gain more than the low achievers. However,across task groups, not all the subjects are influenced in the same way. The low achieversare less influenced than high achievers by different tasks. The high achievers can benefitmore from output tasks than low achievers.Although not totally free from limitations, the findings of the study are of greatpedagogical importance. They not only shed light on the teaching of vocabulary, but on thedesigning of vocabulary exercises and the compiling of textbooks as well.