The Effects Of Roading Tasks On Higher Vocational College Students’ L2 Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

To learn L2 vocabulary incidentally through reading is one of the effective ways to acquire L2 vocabulary. The present study explored the effects of three different reading tasks with different involvement loads on incidental vocabulary acquisition for Chinese higher vocational college students. The study focused on three questions:(1) How do different reading tasks affect the immediate L2 word gains of learners? (2) How do different reading tasks affect the L2 word retention of learners? (3) How does English proficiency affect task-based L2 word learning?This study aimed to test the Involvement Load Hypothesis proposed by Laufer & Hulstijn (2001), which claims that the effectiveness of tasks for L2 vocabulary learning depends on the involvement load composed of three factors:need, search and evaluation. The higher the involvement load, the better the word gains. Subjects were 120 freshman non-English-major students from three intact classes at Nanjing Institute of Industrial Technology. They were randomly assigned to 3 reading tasks that varied in involvement load (from 1 to 3) but all contained 10 target words to be learned. The three tasks were: reading comprehension, reading comprehension plus fill-in and reading comprehension plus sentence making. The effects of acquisition and retention of the 10 target words were measured by an immediate posttest and a delayed posttest after two weeks. The measurement tool was a test requiring the subjects to give Chinese versions or English explanations and make sentences with the target words. All the data were collected and analyzed quantitatively through SPSS 13.0 followed by the qualitative interpretations.The results of the study indicated, first, Chinese higher vocational college students could acquire L2 vocabulary incidentally through reading and all three tasks produced immediate and delayed word gains. Second, tasks with higher involvement load were effective for promoting vocabulary acquisition in that reading-based sentence making group and reading-based fill-in group achieved significantly better word gains than reading comprehension only group in immediate posttest but there was no significant difference between the former two groups. Third, words that were processed with the highest involvement load resulted in best word retention effects in delayed posttest but no significant difference was found between other two groups. The scores of the three groups decreased significantly in delayed posttest showing that vocabulary retention was affected by testing time. The findings of the study partially supported the Involvement Hypothesis and verified that task-based L2 incidental vocabulary learning could be affected by input and output factors. The input- plus-output tasks were more facilitative for L2 Vocabulary learning. In the present study, all the participants were divided into group with high English proficiency level and group with low English proficiency level to investigate the effects of task type modified by English proficiency. The results showed in immediate and delayed posttests, students with high English proficiency level scored significantly higher than those who had low English proficiency level. So, learner’s factors should be taken into consideration in the Involvement Load Hypothesis. Finally, some pedagogical suggestions were made for L2 vocabulary teaching.