The Effects Of Glosses On Incidental Vocabulary Aquisition Through L2Reading By Chinese Senior High School Students

Vocabulary acquisition is an essential part in second languageacquisition; and incidental vocabulary acquisition (IVA) through L2reading is recognized as a major way to acquire considerable L2vocabulary. However, there are many factors which will affect the IVAprocess such as learners’ vocabulary size and reading ability etc.Therefore many researchers have made efforts to find ways to boostincidental vocabulary acquisition through L2reading, and glossing isregarded to be one of the effective ways, which is of great help infacilitating the process of incidental vocabulary acquisition through L2reading.This paper aims to investigate the effects of different types ofglosses on incidental vocabulary acquisition through L2reading. Fourtypes of glosses were identified: L1gloss, L2gloss, L1&L2gloss and nogloss.114Grade Two students at a senior high school in northern part ofChina took part in the experiment. They were required to finish a L2reading material, after which an immediate and a delayed vocabulary testswere carried out respectively without informing the participants inadvance. The results indicate that (1) In the immediate vocabulary test,the glossed groups outperform the no glossed group and there is nosignificant difference among the glossed groups;(2) In the delayedvocabulary test, the glossed groups outperform the no glossed group.Among the glossed groups, L1gloss and L1&L2gloss are more effectivethan L2gloss, but there is no significant difference between L1gloss andL1&L2gloss;(3) In terms of the retention of vocabulary, L1gloss andL1&L2gloss perform better than L2gloss and no gloss. Therefore the glosses should be displayed in L1gloss or L1&L2gloss in Englishreading material for senior high school students in China. Englishteachers in senior high schools and editors of English reading materials inChina should try to provide the most appropriate reading materials forChinese senior high school students in order to improve theircomprehensive ability of English...