| Vocabulary is the base of English learning.To students with difficulties in learning and memorizing English words,it is of great importance to find out a time-saving and effective strategy of vocabulary learning.Incidental vocabulary acquisition(IVA)is a method of learning words and it occurs when language learners acquire new words without any intention as a by-product while other activities are being carried out.This research aims to figure out whether IVA is a suitable English vocabulary learning method for under-achievers in English classes,and whether vocabulary input enhancement is helpful in terms of under-achievers? vocabulary learning,and which input enhancement approach is more effective.This research aims to answer the following questions:(1)Is IVA a suitable vocabulary learning method for under-achievers?(2)Are under-achievers? IVA significantly improved under the condition of input enhancement?(3)Among three different input enhancement methods(multiple choice questions,blank filling and translation),which one is the most effective for under-achievers?72 senior one under-achievers from Jingdong No.1 high school took part in this research and they were divided into 4 groups according to the recent three monthly English test scores and English teachers? and their head teachers? comments.There are 18 members in each group.One is control group and the other three are experimental groups.Students in control group took an immediate vocabulary test after each reading task was completed.The other three experimental groups did some exercises to enhance the target words before the immediate vocabulary test.One week later,all the four groups of students took the delayed vocabulary test.This cycle has been carried out five times.What?s more,this research interviewed the 18 participants in the control group to find more information about whether incidental vocabulary acquisition(without input enhancement)is suitable for them.After the mean scores of five immediate vocabulary tests and delayed vocabulary tests have been compared through independent sample test in SPSS 22.0 and the information from interviewing the first group has been analyzed,the following conclusions can be drawn:(1)IVA is effective for under-achievers.However,those words acquired incidentally will be forgotten easily without any input enhancement.(2)According to the immediate and delayed vocabulary tests,it can be seen that students in experimental groups will master the target words more effectively compared with the control group.(3)Three categories of input enhancement were adopted in this research in order to enhance the target words,namely,Multiple choices,Filling in Blanks and Translation.Doing Translation exercises is the most efficient and effective way to strengthen the target words.Filling in blanks is the second efficient and Multiple choices is the third.However,multiple choices is also a significant category of input enhancement compared with the control group.This research proposes a couple of pedagogical implications for senior school?s English teaching.Firstly,English teachers of senior high school can adopt IVA properly to teach English lexicon and then some measures must be taken to enhance the target words.Secondly,the categories of input enhancement need to be selected appropriately based on students? practical situation.Time permitting,translation exercises can be adopted to enhance the target words;time not enough,filling in blanks,together with multiple choices,is optional. |
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