Incidental Vocabulary Learing Through English Reading: An Empirical Study Among Senior High School Students

Vocabulary is an essential part of language and vocabulary acquisition is very important for language learners. Since 1970 s researches on vocabulary have been highlighted by many experts. Particularly, more attention has been paid to incidental vocabulary learning(IVA). Incidental vocabulary learning is the by-product of learners’ reading or listening. Learners acquire vocabulary in the process of listening or reading.Most of the studies on IVA carried out in China have paid much attention to English majors and non-English majors in universities and colleges. However, few researches have been conducted with senior high school students as the subjects to investigate the effectiveness of incidental vocabulary acquisition.Based on the theory of “Involvement Load Hypothesis”(Laufer and Hulstijn, 2001), the present study was carried out in a senior high school. The aim is to investigate the value of incidental vocabulary learning for senior high school students, the effects of different tasks on incidental vocabulary learning through reading as well as the relationship between learners’ vocabulary size and incidental vocabulary learning through reading. Three questions are addressed as follows: 1) What is the value of incidental vocabulary learning for senior high school students? 2) Do different reading tasks affect their IVA? If yes, how do they affect their IVA? 3) What is the relationship between vocabulary size and incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading?These three research questions were examined through an empirical study. A passage with 10 target words were selected as the reading material in this study and the subjects were 134 students who were senior three from a senior high school in the city of Luoyang. The experiment consists of five steps: pilot study, vocabulary level test, immediate vocabulary test, delayed vocabulary test and semi-structured interview. According to different reading tasks, the subjects were divided into two groups and they read the same passage with different reading tasks. Group one were assigned with the task of reading and answering multiple choice questions afterwards. Meanwhile, Group two took up the task of reading and writing summaries.After analyzing the data, the major findings are: 1) it is effective for senior high school students to acquire vocabulary incidentally through reading; 2) the students in reading and summarizing group perform better than those in the other group; 3) learners’ vocabulary size can affect IVA. Learners with large vocabulary size gain more words than those with small vocabulary size.Based on these findings, the author provides some pedagogical suggestions for second language vocabulary learning and teaching. Firstly, teachers should encourage students to read extensively outside the classroom and select interesting and appropriate reading materials for learners. Secondly, teachers should make students aware of significance of incidental vocabulary learning through reading and develop their ability of IVA.