A Study Of The Effects Of Different Reading Tasks On Senior High English Incidental Vocabulary Learning

Since vocabulary is the basis of second language learning and has an essential influence on it,the studies about vocabulary learning have been paid more and more attention by many scholars and experts at the very beginning of second language learning.In the actual classroom teaching,teachers also have been emphasizing the importance of vocabulary learning.However,vocabulary instruction in the classroom can't cover all kinds of words within limited time,so the effect of vocabulary learning is not very obvious.Therefore,it is necessary and urgent to explore a new method for vocabulary teaching and learning.Incidental vocabulary learning is a kind of words learning method,which is different from the specialized vocabulary learning.In the process of incidental vocabulary learning,learners learn vocabulary knowledge by taking part in some activities such as listening,speaking and reading,during which their attention are paid to the contents of listening or reading not the vocabulary itself only.Understanding the significance of incidental vocabulary learning and its application to vocabulary teaching and learning can help learners not only change their original single way to learn words,but also learn how to use words properly in the specific context.Although the domestic researches on incidental vocabulary learning are enormous,most of them are for English students in colleges or universities.Studies on senior high school students about their learning strategies of incidental vocabulary leaning remain comparatively infrequent.Based on it,this study applies incidental vocabulary learning to English vocabulary teaching and learning in senior high school,trying to prove the effect of incidental vocabulary learning in the reading process of students by finishing tasks with different involvement loads.The writer wants to find the answers to the following questions:1,What are the effects on high school students' incidental vocabulary learning and retention by finishing different reading tasks with different involvement loads?2,How do different reading tasks with different involvement loads affect high school students' incidental vocabulary learning and retention?In this study,the author selected 96 students as the subjects from two intact parallel classes of Grade One in Xi'an Tieyi Binhe Middle School and denoted them as Class 1 and Class 2.The study of incidental vocabulary learning is done through two rounds of tests and an interview to make sure effectiveness of the study.Each experiment is divided into three parts:pre-test,immediate test and delayed test.After two rounds experiments,12 subjects of different levels in their class according to their testing scores are selected to take part in an interview to detect their feelings and attitudes towards this study.After collecting and analyzing the data of the experiments with SPSS software(19.0),the results indicate that different reading tasks have different effects on high school students' incidental vocabulary learning and are closely related to the degree of vocabulary retention.Compared with the reading task with lower involvement load,the higher involvement load task can help students do well in their reading ability and more effective in the word retention.Vocabulary knowledge can be retained longer in tasks with a higher involvement load than in tasks with a lower involvement load.Considering the limited class time for learners to acquire words,the present study shows that students in senior high school can be encouraged to acknowledge vocabularies independently in the process of incidental vocabulary learning.As for teachers,after choosing the appropriate reading materials,and according to the learning objectives,they can design a number of different reading tasks with different involvement load for students to learn words effectively by making use of after-school time.With constantly improvement of a variety of learning resources in newspapers,magazines and network,the opportunities and situations for learners to use English are also gradually increased.If we can use the incidental vocabulary learning to guide and interfere with the learners' vocabulary accumulation,it will greatly promote and complement the classroom teaching.