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Study Of The Effects On Continuation Task Of EFL Learners Vocabulary' Learning In Junior High School Based On The Involvement Load Hypothesis

Posted on:2020-02-25Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:H W ZhenFull Text:PDF
GTID:2415330572974723Subject:Subject teaching
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Vocabulary is the foundation of language learning.Only when learners possess a large amount of vocabulary,can they be fluent in second language(L2).Although the academic circle has conducted copious researches to explore the efficient vocabulary strategies,theories,methods or approaches,the best means of learning L2 vocabulary is still not clear.While the “Involvement Load Hypothesis” proposed by Hulstijn and Laufer(2001)has been tested to be effective and convincing.As for the specific task based on the theory,and factors influencing the most effective way of learning L2 vocabulary is still under heated discussion.Thus,the thesis aims to compare two specific tasks: continuation task and the summary task,which have different “Involvement Load” to check their effectiveness on promoting L2 vocabulary acquisition.By conducting the comparing experiments of the two tasks,the investigator aims to explore an effective approach for L2 vocabulary learning.An empirical study was conducted with two intact classes of 49 EFL learners in junior high school in order to explore the effectiveness of Continuation Task on EFL learners' vocabulary learning.The research questions based on it can be concretely divided into the following two research questions:(1)Can the continuation task assigned to EFL learners improve their vocabulary learning?(2)Is there any significant difference between the assigned continuation task and that of the summary writing task in EFL learners' vocabulary learning? Both classes are randomly assigned as either continuation or summary group.A pre-test has been done to check if there is any significant difference between the two classes.Before the treatment,there was a pilot study to a third class of students with the same level of the two classes,which aims to further check and perfect the research procedures in advance.The two groups were distributed with the same reading material without ending but different tasks of continuation task and summary task respectively.Participants were required to finish their writings with 8 target words in given time.The new or unfamiliar words,including all the target words were glossed with their spellings,pronunciations,part of speech,English explanations,which were attached with the reading material.After the writing,all the participants received an unexpected instant vocabulary fill-in test,and a vocabulary knowledge scale test(VKS)in terms of the words form,meaning and uses of the 8 target words,which aims to test the lexical learning after the task.The delayed test was conducted one week later with the same testing material of instant test but different sequences,which aims to find out the effects on the word retention.Data in the research shows that Continuation Task has promoting effect on EFL learners vocabulary learning.Compared with another reading-and-writing task---Summary Task,the Continuation Task has a significantly better promoting effect on EFL learners' vocabulary meaning and uses learning.The Independent Sample Test and Paired Sample T test are conducted to analyze the data of both groups in vocabulary form,meaning and uses of instant and delayed test.The statistics show that although both two groups gain vocabulary knowledge to some extent,the continuation group obtains significantly higher score than that of the summary group on lexical meaning and use learning.The above findings suggest that the continuation and summary task can both boost the EFL vocabulary learning,but continuation task requires more “Involvement Load” than summary task thus causing better vocabulary acquisition effect.The interaction between the reading and writing tasks and the contents creation are also of great significance for improving vocabulary performance.
Keywords/Search Tags:continuation task, summary task, L2 vocabulary learning, contents creation
PDF Full Text Request
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