The Effects Of Reading-and-writing Tasks On L2 Vocabulary Learning

Vocabulary is the essence of language.A learner needs large numbers of words to be fluent in a second language(L2).However,the best means of achieving good vocabulary learning is still unclear.Reading plus tasks has been verified as an effective way to facilitate L2 vocabulary learning,but which tasks are more effective,what factors or principles construct an effective task in promoting L2 learning are under heated discussion.The present study introduces two reading-and-writing tasks into the field of L2 vocabulary acquisition: the summary task and the continuation task.In investigating and comparing their effectiveness on L2 lexical learning,the present study hopes to explore the underlying principles that promote L2 vocabulary learning in a task.An empirical study was conducted.A total of 61 Chinese freshmen were assigned from three natural parallel classes participated in this study and they were randomly assigned as three groups: a continuation group,a summary group,and a control group.Each of them were required to fulfill a different writing task(reading plus continuation task,reading plus summary task,picture writing)with assigned words involved during the given time.There were 16 assigned words,consisting of 8 target words and 8 distractors.To ensure all the target words were new to all the participants and the reading material was their only access to these words,8 words were chosen from the material and they were substituted by pseudo-words as target words.The pronunciation,part of speech,and explanations in both Chinese and English of the target words are glossed alongside the text with other unfamiliar words in the reading material.After the writing tasks,all participants unexpectedly received the vocabulary tests,including a fill-in test and a vocabulary knowledge scale,testing the form,meaning and use of 8 target words and another 12 distractors,to measure their lexical gain through the task.The delayed vocabulary tests a week later,same testing contents with changed sequences,hope to find out the effects of the tasks on word retention.The vocabulary test scores were studied with analytic statistics.One-way ANOVA,the following post hoc Scheffe and paired t-tests have analyzed the score of the form,meaning,and use tests of two posttests.They found that all three groups acquired the word knowledge to some extent in terms of form,meaning,use.The continuation group gained significantly higher score than the control group in the meaning and use tests while the summary group did not perform as well as the control group in the meaning and use tests.There was significant difference between the continuation group and the summary group in vocabulary learning.The above results suggests that,although learners can acquire L2 vocabulary through reading-and-writing tasks,not all reading-and-writing tasks share the same effectiveness.The role of the interaction between reading and writing and the importance of contents creation are put forward as key principles for promoting vocabulary acquisition.