A Study On The Effect Of Interactionally Modified Input On English Majors’ Acquisition Of Incidental Vocabulary Through Reading

Since Nagy and Herman (1985) proposed the concept of“incidental vocabulary learning”, studies of incidental vocabulary acquisition (IVA) have attracted increasing attention at home and abroad. IVA has become an important part of vocabulary acquisition. Over the past two decades, researchers have explored different elements that may affect IVA through English reading comprehension, including reading tasks, vocabulary size, dictionary use and so on. However, little attention is drawn to the effect of one kind of comprehensible input, the interactionally modified input on English majors’IVA through reading. So the present research attempts to study the effect of interactionally modified input on English majors’IVA based on Interaction Hypothesis and Incidental Vocabulary Learning Hypothesis.Specifically, the present study attempts to answer the following questions:1. Can Chinese English learners acquire vocabulary incidentally through reading?2. Does interactionally modified input facilitate incidental vocabulary acquisition in short-term?3. Does interactionally modified input facilitate incidental vocabulary acquisition in long-term? 4. Is there any correlation between learners’IVA in short-term and their IVA in long-term? If yes, how is the correlation?Two parallel classes of English Education major in Foreign Language School of Southwest University are selected as the subjects in which 60 tuition-free normal college freshmen participate in the quantitive and qualitative study. There are 30 students in the control group and the other 30 students are in the experimental group. The two groups are required to read the same passage and answer the same reading comprehension questions. The control group fulfills the reading task independently, while the experimental group has the opportunity to be exposed to interactionally modified input after reading and answering the questions by themselves. The pretest on vocabulary is conducted before the reading activity, aiming to select the target words. The immediate posttest and the delayed posttest on target words are conducted after the reading activity. The three vocabulary tests are adapted from the five-category of Vocabulary Scale Knowledge (VKS), and the VKS scoring categories are employed to generate the data from the tests. An interview with 10 students of each group is carried out after each vocabulary test. The data is examined in T-test and correlation analysis with SPSS. Besides, the results from the interview are employed to discuss participants’IVA and recognition on interactionally modified input.The major findings are:1. Chinese English learners can acquire vocabulary incidentally through reading.2. Interactionally modified input facilitate IVA in short-term significantly.3. Interactionally modified input facilitate IVA in long-term as well.4. There is notably positive correlation between learners’IVA in short-term and their IVA in long-term.Based on the results above, some constructive implications are put forward to improve second language (L2) learners’IVA and develop teaching of English vocabulary, with the limitations and suggestions for future study presented in the present study.