An Empirical Study On Retrieval Opportunities And Incidental Vocabulary Learning During Reading At Senior High School

In first language acquisition research, it is well established that reading is one of the main ways of learning new words, and that people who do more readings know more words. Reading is critical for first language development and it is assumed to be important for second language development as well. Vocabulary learning is of vital importance for foreign language learners, especially for young language learners. The accumulation of vocabulary can, on the one hand, help learners a lot when doing some reading. On the other hand, it also brings them new ideas about learning words that come from the same category. At present, we prefer to combine meaning-oriented language instructions (e.g. Communicative Teaching, Immersion Instruction, the Natural Approach, Content-Based Instruction) with form-oriented language instruction (e.g. Grammar Translation Method, Audiolingual Method, Total Physical Response). As a result, language teachers endeavor to provide opportunities for L2 learners to learn words incidentally during reading. In doing so, we not only focus on the comprehension of the passage, but also pay attention to the acquisition of target words in the passage. In other words, learners can learn L2 words during reading just like L1 learners.In China, English as a foreign language (EFL) learners face the challenges of lacking exposure to English. For a majority of them, they only have chance to use English in English class. However, there are only 5-6 hours per week for high school students to practice English in class. Due to the limited time, it is urgent for English teachers in China to find effective ways to consolidate the vocabulary the learners have learned in class and also help them learn vocabulary in other in-class and out-class activities (e.g. during reading). Language teachers believe that extensive reading helps their students acquire new vocabulary, and second language acquisition researchers have determined that learning new words during reading should be possible. An abundance of evidence from research suggests that incidental vocabulary learning during reading is possible. Yet there are many factors that may influence incidental vocabulary learning during reading, such as topic familiarity, English proficiency, reading comprehension and so on. Therefore, language teachers should control some of the intervening factors and yield the best learning outcome during reading. Barcroft (2015) investigated the effects of retrieval on incidental vocabulary learning during reading and proved that given retrieval opportunities learners do learn vocabulary better.This paper extends the study of Barcroft (2015) and scrutinizes whether senior high school L2 learners learn vocabulary better during reading if given retrieval opportunities. The study also makes an attempt to further investigate under which of the three conditions learners learn vocabulary the best. The three conditions are:(a) the five target words appeared three times within the text (no retrieval); (b) each L2 word appeared alongside its L1 translation the first time, but the second and the third time only the L1 translation appeared, along with a blank space in which the participants are asked to produce the L2 word on their own (+retrieval); (c) each L2 word appeared alongside its L2 explanation the first time, but the second and the third time only the L2 explanation appeared, along with a blank space in which the participants are asked to produce the L2 word on their own (+retrieval). Thirty Chinese-speaking senior high school students (12th graders) read an English text for meaning. Each of the five target words (e.g. mandatory) appeared three times in the text. The control participants (n=10) always viewed the Chinese translation of the target words. The participants in experimental group B (n=10) viewed the Chinese translation for each target word only the first time the word appeared and then attempted to retrieve and produce (write) the word on their own for the final two appearances. The participants in experimental group C (n=10) viewed the English explanation for each target word only the first time the word appeared and then attempted to retrieve and produce (write) the word on their own for the final two appearances. Both first language to second language and second language to first language post-tests were conducted. Results indicated that participants in the experimental groups learn vocabulary better than those in the control group. This finding is consistent with that of Barcroft (2015). It means that given retrieval opportunities learners can learn vocabulary better during reading. However, there is no significant difference between group B and group C.