| Nowadays, the importance of learning vocabulary has been acknowledged bymore and more researchers and scholars in foreign language learning. Hence, how tolearn more vocabulary efficiently has been of great concern. In the past decade,incidental vocabulary acquisition has become a new method of learning vocabulary.Based on involvement load hypothesis and noticing hypothesis (Schmidt,1990;Hulstijn&Laufer,2001), the researcher has designed four different reading tasks(reading comprehension task, reading comprehension task with input enhancement,gap-filling task, summary writing task) in order to examine the effects of readingtasks with different involvement loads and input enhancement on incidentalvocabulary acquisition. A vocabulary levels test has also been designed in the researchto investigate whether vocabulary size has an effect on incidental vocabularyacquisition. The interview is conducted among some students to further understandtheir opinions as to the method of incidental vocabulary acquisition after theycompleted the corresponding reading tasks. Five questions are investigated in theresearch:1. Do the reading tasks with different involvement loads have different effects onincidental vocabulary acquisition?2. Does the reading task with higher involvement load lead to more effectiveincidental vocabulary acquisition than the task with lower involvement load?3. Do the tasks with the same involvement load but differing in input enhancementhave any different effects on incidental vocabulary acquisition?4. Does the vocabulary size have an impact on the incidental vocabulary acquisition?5. What’s the students’ opinion about the incidental vocabulary acquisition throughconducting different reading tasks?Four parallel classes of English sophomores in a Jiangxi university haveparticipated in the experiment and they were assigned to four different reading tasksrandomly. After they completed the vocabulary levels test and corresponding readingtasks, the immediate vocabulary test of ten target words was distributed among thestudents. Nine subjects have been interviewed by the researcher afterwards. One week later, the students received the first delayed vocabulary test with the same targetwords in a different order. One month later, the students received the second delayedvocabulary test also with the same target words in a different order. The students havenot been informed of three vocabulary posttests in advance.After the data collection, SPSS13.0has been used to analyze the data and theresearcher has got the following conclusions:1. Reading tasks with different involvement loads have different effects onincidental vocabulary acquisition, but due to the effect of forgetting, the acquisitionrate of vocabulary decreased a lot during the long period.2. The tasks with higher involvement load do not necessarily lead to bettervocabulary acquisition3. Input enhancement has exerted a positive effect on incidental vocabularyacquisition in the short period; however, the effect has disappeared after the longperiod (a month later).4. Vocabulary size does have an impact on incidental vocabulary acquisition.Learners of large vocabulary size acquired the vocabulary better than those of smallvocabulary size.5. Students in different reading tasks have shown positive attitude towards themethod of incidental vocabulary acquisition and put forward some suggestions forfurther improvement.From the theoretical perspective, the research tested and enriched theinvolvement load hypothesis and noticing hypothesis. From the practical perspective,the research has provided some pedagogic implications. Teachers could designdifferent reading tasks according to different needs to complement traditionalvocabulary teaching. As the vocabulary size has a significant impact on incidentalvocabulary acquisition, teachers should encourage students to improve vocabularysize through different ways such as reading English magazines and novels, orwatching foreign classic films. |
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