The Effects Of Narrow Reading On Vocabulary Acquisition Of English Reading At High School

This thesis applies narrow reading in high school English reading teaching to explore its effects in vocabulary acquisition. It detects into the relationship between narrow reading and its effects of learners with different vocabulary levels. The author hopes to provide some implications on effectively acquiring vocabulary through narrow reading for L2 learners especially for high school students in their English reading.This empirical study selected 40 voluntary students from a high school. These 40 participants were divided into two groups, among which 20 were in narrow reading group and the other 20 in extensive reading group. In each group, participants were divided into two levels according to their vocabulary levels. In this study, reading on the same topic in narrow reading is taken as the study case. Reading materials with the same topic for the narrow reading group and reading materials with different topics for the extensive reading group were provided for the participants. A vocabulary level test, a vocabulary acquisition test, and a face-to-face interview were employed to collect data as instruments. The results reveal that students in narrow reading group get better scores at acquiring vocabulary. They also show more interest in English reading while being given materials with the same topic for a period of time. However, reading passages on the same topic for quite a long time appear to have a certain negative impact on the reading motivation of some participants, especially for high-vocabulary- level readers.