| This study has explored the effects of input enhancement on the acquisition of English vocabulary in reading instruction. The researches on the efficiency of input enhancement have not reached an agreement. Some researchers held this idea that input enhancement has significant influence on the vocabulary acquisition; On the other hand, others didn’t agree on that viewpoint. However, among those researches, a few of them have examined learners’internal mechanism, which is actually the main factor that affects the result of input enhancement. Thus, this study attempts to ameliorate this weakness from the perspective of cognitive psychology by means of "remember" and "know" judgments. Through the analysis of learners’internal factors, the author hopes to carry some implications for the utilization of input enhancement in reading instruction.Based on the information processing theory, this study was carried out to answer the following questions:1) How does input enhancement affect L2 learners’consciousness to vocabulary?2) How does input enhancement affect L2 learners’immediate and delayed vocabulary acquisition?Two classes consisting of 68 sophomores majoring in English from Human Normal University participated in this experiment. One is the experimental class who received a reading material modified by input enhancement, and the other is the controlled class who received an original reading material. The participants took part in a pretest, a "remember" and "know" judgments, and two vocabulary posttests. The author analyzed those data by utilizing the Independent-Samples T-Test, the Paired-Samples T-Test and the Multiple Linear Regression Analysis.The results of experiment one show that the "remembering" grades in the experimental class are better than those in the controlled class. However, there exist no differences in the "knowing" grades between those two classes. Therefore, it can be inferred that those members in the experimental class were engaged in more elaborative rehearsal than the controlled class when they encountered the new English words, but neither of the two classes utilized a lot of maintenance rehearsal. Furthermore, the findings of the immediate vocabulary posttest suggest that the experimental class acquired more English words than the controlled class. Nevertheless, in the delayed vocabulary posttest, there is no difference between those two classes, so the influence of input enhancement is not likely to last for a long time. Through the application of the Multiple Linear Regression Analysis, it can be shown that the grades of "remember" and "know" judgments are related to the results of the immediate vocabulary posttest. The extent to which a learner processes new information decides how well he can recall that information. The author drew some implications from this study. Firstly, input enhancement facilitates learners to use elaborative rehearsal, which is beneficial for the recollection. Moreover, input enhancement sheds great influence on the immediate vocabulary acquisition. Consequently, input enhancement is a kind of useful intervention in reading instruction. What’s more, because of the unsatisfactory performance in the delayed posttest, it can be summarized that apart from input enhancement, learners may be badly in need of decontextualized learning and teachers’ explicit instructions in reading instruction.There are also some limitations of the study. For instance, the subjects who took part in this study are adults, who have relative mature cognitive abilities. Therefore, in the further study, researchers can focus their attention on the children. Besides, the number of the participants who took part in this study is small. It affects the application of the results widely. On account of those flaws, more participants from different cognitive levels should be involved in this study, in order to further discuss input enhancement from learners’internal factors. |
PDF Full Text Request