The Effect Of The Combinations Of Incidental And Intentional Learning On High School Students’ Vocabulary Learning

Among the L2 vocabulary learning modes, both incidental vocabulary acquisition and intentional vocabulary learning have received great attention. A large number of studies proved that incidental learning is an important and effective vocabulary learning mode. It is contextualized, giving learners a richer sense of the use and meaning of a word and it is more individualized and learner-centered, vocabulary being acquired dependent on the learner’s selection. However, incidental learning has several limitations, for example, low efficiency,difficult inferring process and frequent ignorance of target words. To solve these problems, many researchers put forward that intentional learning should be incorporated, for it makes target words more prominent and accessible. Thus, the appeal for combining incidental and intentional learning came into existence. Based on the previous studies, the current study investigated the effectiveness of the combinations of incidental and intentional learning on improving high school students’ vocabulary learning and further explored the comparative superiority between the two combined patterns.In the study, participants were 122 first-year high school students in Shandong province.They were divided into three groups and received different treatments. Group 1 simply adopted incidental learning mode(reading two thematically related passages with 10 same target words in each passage); Group 2 took combined learning modes(reading passage plus vocabulary exercises); Group 3 also took combined modes but in various patterns(reading the same one passage plus writing a composition). Then, all the participants were tested the recall of 10 target words in both immediate test and one-week after delayed test by modified Vocabulary Knowledge Scale. By the software SPSS 17.0, the data from the two tests were analyzed by employing one-way ANOVA, Scheffe post hoc multiple comparisons and paired samples test.Besides, a semi-structured interview involving randomly selected 12 participants was conducted,recordings of which were transcribed and analyzed.The results of the study indicated:(1) students who received the combined learning modes significantly outperformed their counterparts in terms of immediate vocabulary gains.Furthermore, in the comparisons of the two patterns of the combined learning modes, reading plus vocabulary exercises had more pronounced learning effect.(2) In delayed test, the combined learning modes were still more effective. Compared with reading plus writing a composition,reading plus vocabulary exercises performed better in words retention, and retention rate was93%.(3) In perspective of receptive and productive knowledge, the combined learning modes showed substantial advantage in boosting receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge in both two post tests. In the comparisons of two patterns of the combined learning modes, readingplus vocabulary exercises remained its edge and brought higher acquisition rate. The rate was36%(receptive knowledge) and 21%(productive knowledge) in immediate test, and 23%(receptive knowledge) and 15%(productive knowledge) in delayed test. According to the interview, the students reported that incidental learning alone was weak in noticing target words;reading plus vocabulary exercises strengthened participants’ noticing of target words and facilitated their meaning-inferring process; reading plus writing activities also strengthened participants’ noticing of target words but the activity is said to be difficult.Based on the results, high school teachers can adopt combined learning modes in vocabulary teaching. More specifically, teachers can adopt incidental learning to provide rich contextual information of target words, and after that, teachers can adopt intentional vocabulary activities to boost students’ interest. In choosing intentional learning activities, some factors, for example, difficulty level, students’ subjective preference should be taken into consideration.Inevitably, the study showed some limitations, such as, the confined size and scope of sample,contrived reading materials and short interval between two post tests. In order to make up for these deficiencies, future studies should select larger size and broader scope of sample, adopt more authentic reading materials and lengthen two tests’ interval.