A Study On Lexical Inferencing Strategy And Incidental Acquisition Efficacy In Academic English Reading Of Non-english Major Postgraduates

With the construction of the national foreign language proficiency evaluation system,the comprehensive and coordinated development of English language ability has been paid more and more attention.Reading comprehension ability is one of the important components of English language ability,and it has attracted wide attention of researchers too.Reading comprehension ability includes vocabulary knowledge,grammar knowledge,reading strategy and other elements.Through the CNKI and Web of Science databases,the study searches domestic and foreign related literatures and finds that the study of English reading strategy at home and abroad are biased towards the overall macroscopic research,lacking micro-specific analysis.The researches on lexical inferencing strategy have obtained some achievements,but there are still related questions need to be solved.The research can be explored further about the discourse effect on the lexical inferencing strategy.In the academic reading discourse,the lack of the vocabulary is the dilemma and it will obstruct the reading speed and understanding(Cai Jigang,2010),but there is no research to study lexical inferencing strategy in academic English reading.When learners are using the language or learning,they pay no attention on vocabulary,but the vocabulary knowledge still increase.Incidental vocabulary acquisition is a kind of vocabulary cognitive activity that the attention is focused on others,and acquiring vocabulary knowledge is not the purpose but the method of finishing the learning activity(Huckin & Coady,1999).Therefore,the questions remain in suspense,such as,after the use of lexical inferencing strategy,whether incidental vocabulary acquisition will happen,and how is the efficacy of incidental vocabulary acquisition.According to the new requirements of the development of the era,this study uses mixed research method to study the strategy awareness and use situation of lexical inferencing strategy(a specific reading strategy)and the correlation between lexical inferencing strategy and incidental vocabulary acquisition efficacy in the academic English reading of non-English major postgraduates in Chinese context.The thesis is different from the current researches at home and abroad in research subjects,research methods and research contents(Jiang Xiangdong et al.,2009;Hu Pingping,Chen Jianlin,2014;Hu Pingping,2015;Zhao Longwu,2012;Fan Lin,2013;Marcell & Nassaji,2012;2014).The study uses mixed research method,which is a combination of questionnaires survey and semi-structured interviews,according to the existing strategy framework to survey,and based on research findings to interview.The results of questionnaire and the content of interview confirm mutually,to ensure the authenticity of the research results.The study goes through the process of lexical inferencing strategy elaborating the awareness(before the use of strategy),use situation(during the use of strategy)and incidental vocabulary acquisition efficacy(after the use of strategy)and conducted an in-depth study on the subjects.This study selects 148 non-English major postgraduates to explore the strategy awareness and use situation of lexical inferencing strategy in academic English reading and the incidental vocabulary acquisition efficacy,including the strategy awareness and strategy use,the correlation between four dimensions of 8yg gglexical inferencing strategy and incidental vocabulary acquisition efficacy,and the exploration of incidental acquisition efficacy in different situations(original context and transfer context),summarizing the characteristics and laws of strategy.The study hopes to provide reference for the teaching and learning of academic English reading.Based on the analysis of data and interview content by SPSS 22.0 and NVivo11 pro,the main findings are as follows: in academic English reading,non-English major postgraduate students are aware of the use of lexical inferencing strategy and could use multiple lexical inferencing strategies.Among them,the using rate of monitoring strategy is the highest,then is the form-focused strategy,the meaning-focused strategy,and the lowest using rate is the evaluating strategy;and there is also a positive correlation between lexical inferencing strategy and incidental vocabulary acquisition efficacy,and the standardized regression formulation is: incidental vocabulary acquisition efficacy= 0.532×meaning-focused strategy +0.260×monitoring strategy + 0.143×form-focused strategy +0.011×evaluating strategy.The mean of incidental vocabulary acquisition efficacy is generally 3,and the mean in original context is higher than in transfer context.In addition,the use of lexical inferencing strategy and incidental vocabulary acquisition efficacy are different between academic English reading and general English reading.The study suggests that we should expand memory span,increase vocabulary output ability and improve the effect of strategy use in teaching.In the process of learning,we should construct the mental schema,pay attention to the strategy evaluation in the process of inferencing,and focus the combination of form and meaning of vocabulary.Limited by the subjective and objective conditions,this study has some shortcomings: 1)the sample of this study is not broad enough.Only 148 postgraduates are selected for the study,although they are sufficiently representative to some extent and meet the needs of the study,but it is not enough to fully reflect the strategy awareness,use situation and incidental acquisition efficacy of the lexical inferencing strategy in the academic English reading of non-English major postgraduates in China.2)This research is an exploration research currently.Although it studies the incidental vocabulary acquisition and the dynamic development of vocabulary knowledge in their learning process,it doesn't comprehensively study the cognitive process and characteristics of the strategy.To some degree,the thesis is an exploratory study.From the perspective of cognitive psychology,this study investigates the awareness and use of lexical inferencing strategy in academic English reading,and explores the efficacy of incidental vocabulary acquisition after strategy use.The paper hopes that more researchers will pay attention to this dynamic process and provide reference for the teaching and learning of related studies.