The Effects Of Task Involvement Load And Task Type On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

The momentous role of vocabulary in language study is undoubted.Since the concept of incidental vocabulary acquisition is proposed,scholars both at home and abroad have conducted mountains of empirical researches about the effects of tasks with different involvement loads on incidental vocabulary acquisition from reading activities on the basis of Involvement Load Hypothesis.The results indicate that learners do acquire some words incidentally in the reading process and higher involvement load can lead to better incidental vocabulary acquisition results.However,empirical studies on incidental vocabulary acquisition through listening are rare.As a matter of fact,listening,as an equally important input method with reading,plays a significant role in second language acquisition.Therefore,whether language learners can acquire new words incidentally from listening activities and whether task involvement load(high vs.low)and task type(input vs.output)can affect incidental vocabulary acquisition need further exploration by empirical researches.On the basis of Depth of Processing Theory,Involvement Load Hypothesis and Comprehensible Output Hypothesis,this study explores the current status of incidental vocabulary acquisition through listening by senior one students and compares effects of listening tasks of different involvement loads and task type on incidental vocabulary acquisition.The subjects of this study are 58 senior one students from Yixian middle school,Hebei province.They are divided into three groups and each group need finish one listening task.The involvement loads of three listening tasks are 1,3,3 respectively.Task B is an input task and task C is an output task.Then immediate and delayed vocabulary knowledge scale tests are administered to the subjects.The data are collected by mixed method,including questionnaire,interview and vocabulary test and analyzed by SPSS 19.0 after experiment.The results show that(1)senior one students do acquire some new words incidentally through daily listening activities;(2)the higher the task involvement load,the better incidental vocabulary acquisition and retention results;(3)with the same involvement loads,output tasks result in better vocabulary retention results than input tasks.They partially support the Involvement Load Hypothesis and indicate that task type also has a great impact on incidental vocabulary acquisition.