An Experimental Study On The Effects Of Different Written Output Exercises On English Vocabulary Acquisition Based On Involvement Load Hypothesis

There is no doubt that vocabulary is a stumbling block for almost all the second language learners to learn a second language,especially for junior high school students.Therefore,how to learn and teach vocabulary effectively has become one of the focuses for second language researchers and teachers.Doing some vocabulary exercises after reading can not only check what students have learned,but also can consolidate their vocabulary knowledge.So selection of effective and efficient written output exercises is of considerable importance to second language learners and teachers.The present study intends to explore the effects of three different written output exercises on vocabulary intake and retention based on the Involvement Load Hypothesis.To this end,two research questions were put forward.1.What are the effects of different written output exercises on EFL learners' vocabulary intake?2.What are the effects of different written output exercises on EFL learners' vocabulary retention?To answer these two questions,three different written output exercises(“fill-in”,“translation”,“sentence writing”)which are commonly used in junior high schools were adopted to compare their effects on vocabulary acquisition.According to the Involvement Load Hypothesis by Laufer and Hulstijn(2001),they are of different involvement loads with “fill-in”(+need,-search,+evaluation)and “translation”(+need,-search,+evaluation)having 2 involvement load index and “sentence writing”(+need,-search,++evaluation)having 3 involvement load index,and if other factors being equal,the higher involvement load they have,the better vocabulary acquisition effect they produce.Hence,our hypotheses are: “fill-in” has the same effect on vocabulary acquisition as “translation” and “sentence writing” has a better effect thanthe other two exercises.138 Grade 8 subjects from 3 parallel classes were selected to serve as the three experimental groups for three written output exercises respectively.There are totally45 target words.The VKS Scale was adopted to have some immediate tests for vocabulary intake and some delayed tests for vocabulary retention.The research data were analyzed through SPSS 24.0.One-way ANOVA and Paired-Samples T Test methods were used.The major research findings were presented as follows.For vocabulary intake,the sentence-writing group with the highest involvement load performed significantly the best,followed by the translation group,the last one being the fill-in group.The same results have been discovered for vocabulary retention: the sentence-writing group performed best,followed by the translation group,the last one being the fill-in group.Therefore,for both vocabulary intake and retention,“sentence writing” produces the best effect,followed by “translation”,and then “fill-in”.The research findings only partially support the Involvement Load Hypothesis in that “translation” having the same involvement load as “fill-in”produces better effect than the latter.The research results are not fully consistent with our hypothesis probably in that the measurement of the three components of Involvement Load Hypothesis is not reasonable and scientific and “fill-in” may have less involvement load than“translation”.The reason for this is that for the “fill-in” exercise,the amount of learners' output is much less than that in “translation”,and hence,the involvement load is much lower.