A Study Of The Effect Of Different Output Tasks On Productive Vocabulary Acquisition

Vocabulary has always been considered as the basis of language learning. However, the low efficiency of vocabulary acquisition, the insufficient a productive vocabulary and a low intake of vocabulary are puzzling most of the teachers and learners. Many researchers have been studying on these problems. Vocabulary acquisition is a process of continuation and repeating, and has a connection with learners’ noticing, taking-in, and processing. Most related researches have focused on the important role that output plays in the second language acquisition, but few of them paid attention to the different effects that different output tasks have on vocabulary acquisition.In this thesis, the researcher conducted an experiment to examine the effects that different output tasks have on vocabulary acquisition. This research focuses on the following research questions: 1. Is there a significant difference among different output tasks on the productive vocabulary acquisition? 2. If yes, to what extent do different output tasks affect productive vocabulary acquisition?Forty three students in Northeast Yucai Experimental School were chosen to participate in this experiment. The participants were divided into three groups: 1) Group 1: text reconstruction orally task; 2) Group 2: composition task; 3) Group 3: written text reconstruction task. The whole experiment consist of the following three steps: pretest, teacher intervention, and post test.Through the analysis of SPSS, we have the following main findings: 1. There are some significant differences among different output tasks on the productive vocabulary acquisition. 2. Written output task is equally effective with oral output task in L2 productive vocabulary acquisition. However, between written output tasks, text reconstruction achieves better effect than composition in L2 productive vocabulary acquisition.Although this study is limited for some reasons, it still provides the second language teachers new thoughts, and has its theoretical and practical meanings.