Effect Of Different Reading Purposes On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition In L2 Reading Of Senior High School Students

Vocabulary is not only one of the three elements of the English language, but also the most basic part of the English language learning. Therefore, vocabulary learning occupies a very important position in foreign language teaching and learning. Some studies have shown that the higher the learners'language level, the greater the demand for vocabulary. However, in the past, vocabulary learning seemed to be in a neglected position for a long time. Especially, for second language teachers and learners in China, it's very important for them to get rid of learning vocabulary by rote and find out an effective and interesting way of vocabulary acquisition.Many studies have shown that extensive reading contributes a lot to incidental vocabulary acquisition in the process of second language learning. About two decades in the past, linguists and scholars at home and abroad have investigated and studied many related factors which may affect incidental vocabulary acquisition in second language reading. However, in the literature review, the author finds that the factor of reading purpose has been rarely explored in the studies available. The purpose of this research is to explore how the three reading purposes may affect the second language learners' incidental vocabulary acquisition. The three reading purposes in this study are:Purpose 1 "read to learn about the theme of the article", Purpose 2 "read to understand the article content", and Purpose 3"read to understand the details of the article".There are more than 100 students from a senior high school in Fuzhou who took part in this experiment. Based on the theories of Involvement Load Hypothesis (Laufer & Hulstiji,2001) and Information Processing Model (McLaughlin, et al, 1983), this study aims to explore the following three questions:(1)Do the different reading purposes have a significant effect on the immediate incidental vocabulary acquisition for senior high school students in second language reading? (2)Is there a difference on delayed incidental vocabulary acquisition as well as the retention of those acquired unknown words for students with different reading purposes in second language reading? (3)Do the students with high or low reading ability have significant differences in incidental vocabulary acquisition and retention when they read with three different reading purposes?The experiment of this study lasted for a long period and it consisted of three tests, including a survey, an immediate vocabulary test and a delay vocabulary test. Meanwhile, the immediate and delay vocabulary test interval for a week. The survey is to define the target words, the immediate vocabulary test is to check the students' vocabulary acquisition and the delayed vocabulary test is to examine the effects of vocabulary retention. The collected data were statistically analyzed by using SPSS 13.0 (English version) after the completion of the experiment.The results of the study show:(1) Senior high school students are able to acquire a certain number of new words incidentally with three different purposes through second language reading, and the different reading purposes have a significant effect on the immediate incidental vocabulary acquisition. (2) With three different reading purposes through second language reading, the students who read with purpose 3 (read to understand the details of the article) acquired the largest amount of vocabularies and kept the best retention of the new words, and in turn, the students who read with purpose 2 (read to understand the article content) got more words and keep better retention than the students who read with purpose 1(read to learn about the theme of the article). There also existed significant differences at 0.05 levels among the three different reading purposes. (3) When the students read with different reading purposes, the students with high or low reading abilities have significant differences on incidental vocabulary acquisition and retention. The results of this study have some implications for second language teachers and learners on vocabulary teaching and learning in China.