The Study Of The Impact Of Task-Induced Involvement Load On L2Incidental Productive Vocabulary Acquisition

To learn a foreign or a second language, learners must acquire many thousand words. In recent years, the long-neglected issue of vocabulary learning and acquisition has increasingly attracted the attention of many researchers. Abundant researches showed that intentional learning is not the only effective method for Second Language (L2) learners to acquire vocabulary. By contrast, learners can acquire vocabulary incidentally through extensive reading. In this situation, many language researchers now have shifted their attention from teachers’ teaching to learners’acquisition, and are especially interested in incidental vocabulary acquisition (IVA).Many theories concerning incidental vocabulary learning have emerged, among which Laufer and Hulstijn’s Involvement Load Hypothesis receives wide appreciation for its easy access to measurement. The theory indicates that the more reading involvement load, the better vocabulary acquisition and retention. Therefore, this study within the framework of the Involvement Load Hypothesis aims to testify the effectiveness of tasks with different involvement loads on retention of incidental productive vocabulary knowledge through reading. Meanwhile, the study intends to testify the validity of the hypothesis.The author chose one hundred and three non-English major freshmen as the subjects of the current study. They came from three intact classes with equivalent English proficiency. Before entering Liaoning Technical University, they have studied English as a second language for at least six years. There were ten target words in the study. Three tasks beard different involvement load and were randomly assigned to the subjects:reading comprehension, reading comprehension plus blank filling, reading comprehension plus sentence making. The data was assessed by means of three vocabulary tests and an interview. SPSS13.0was used to analyze the quantitative data from the experiment.The following results were drawn from the experiment:in the immediate post-test, non-English majors can acquire and retain the written form knowledge incidentally through completing tasks with different involvement loads. And the results also show that tasks with higher involvement loads can yield better immediate retention than tasks with lower involvement loads. However, in the delayed post-test, the three groups suffered from a great loss of productive vocabulary knowledge. Although there did exist significant differences among three groups, the sentence making group and blank filling group performed equivalently in long-term retention of productive vocabulary knowledge. With regard to the effects of productive vocabulary retention, there were no long-lasting effects on productive vocabulary retention except reading comprehension group as a consequence of low immediate gains in immediate post-test.The results of the present experiment partially supported the Involvement Load Hypothesis. Meanwhile, some pedagogical implications were suggested to improve vocabulary teaching in universities.