A Study Of The Effects Of Textual Enhancement And Output Task On Incidental Acquisition Of English Lexical Chunks Through Reading In Senior High Schools

Lexical chunks,as multi-word units of high-frequency in both written and spoken English,have increasingly attracted widespread attention of Second Language(L2)researchers.Taking Comprehensible Input Hypothesis,Noticing Hypothesis and Output Hypothesis as theoretical foundations,the present study proposes to examine the effects of different attention-drawing interventions on the incidental acquisition of English lexical chunks in the reading context by Chinese senior high school students.In particular,the experiment focuses on intervention means with language input and learner's output and investigates the effects of textual enhancement,output task,and their combination.The research seeks to answer the following three questions:1.What are the immediate effects of textual enhancement,output task,and their combination,on senior high learners'incidental acquisition of lexical chunks through English reading respectively?2.What are the delayed effects of textual enhancement,output task,and their combination,on senior high learners' incidental acquisition of lexical chunks through English reading?3.Which type of intervention means,textual enhancement,output task or their combination,is the most effective in facilitating senior high learners'incidental acquisition of lexical chunks in the English reading context?The subjects were 124 first-year senior high school students from four parallel classes in Bao,an District,Shenzhen City,Guangdong Province.There were no significant differences in their English proficiency.The research included the pilot study and the main experiment.The pilot study aimed at examining research design and selecting target lexical chunks;the main experiment included experimental treatment,the immediate lexical chunks knowledge test,the delayed lexical chunks knowledge test as well as the interview.The research findings are as follows:1.All of the three attention-drawing intervention means have positive immediate effects on incidental acquisition of lexical chunks.However,the positive effects only lie in facilitating the form recognition and the meaning acquisition.Their effects on the acquisition of lexical chunks'usage are not sizable,thus,incidental acquisition of lexical chunks cannot completely take the place of intentional learning.2.The delayed effects of three intervention means are not satisfactory.There is a significant decline in the retention of lexical chunks knowledge.3.For students with high English proficiency,textual enhancement is the most beneficial way to acquire lexical chunks knowledge incidentally.For those with intermediate and lower-intermediate English proficiency,the combined use of textual enhancement and output task is relatively the most effective.Besides,output tasks should be modified from students'English proficiency.The current study also gives implications for senior high school students,teachers as well as textbook designers.For textbook designers,using textual enhancement techniques can help learners build their awareness of lexical chunks thus facilitate the incidental acquisition of lexical chunks in English reading context.For teachers,various output tasks should be provided for students for the purpose of impelling them further process the lexical chunks.For students,incidental acquisition of lexical chunks can be a subsidiary way of lexical chunks' learning.And more attention should be paid on lexical chunks in the reading materials.Finally,considering the limitations,the present study points out directions for future research.