The Effects Of Word Exposure Frequency And Word Processing On Chinese EFL Learners' Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

Incidental vocabulary acquisition is an important approach to acquire vocabulary knowledge.In the recent decade,the number of incidental acquisition research has continued to rise and incidental vocabulary acquisition still has been the research hotspot in the field of second language acquisition.By the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods,the current study aims at investigating the effects of word exposure frequency and word processing on Chinese EFL learners incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading,examining the different results of incidental vocabulary acquisition on different conditions and the reasons for that.One hundred and nineteen non-English major freshmen from three parallel classes of Shaanxi Normal University have participated in the current study.The process of the current study was mainly divided into two stages.In the first stage,a mixed design experiment of two factors was conducted with word processing involved three levels as the between-subjects factor and word exposure frequency involved two levels as the within-subjects factor.A reading text involved ten target words with different levels of word processing and word exposure frequency were assigned to all the subjects.The immediate posttest in terms of receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge was administered after the subjects accomplished the reading and corresponding tasks.The delayed posttest was also conducted a week later after the immediate posttest.The target-word retention sheets in the delayed posttest were exactly the same as that in the immediate posttest.Data collected from the experiment was analyzed through SPSS 19.0.In the second stage,qualitative research methods were used to explore the reasons for different incidental vocabulary acquisition results.According to the quantitative research results and the three levels of word processing,four participants were randomly selected for interview.Subsequently,data collected from the interview were analyzed through NVivo 11.0.Results of the current study indicated that word exposure frequency and word processing exerted different effects on different types of vocabulary knowledge.In terms of receptive vocabulary knowledge acquisition,there was a significant main effect for word exposure frequency but no significant main effect for word processing.In terms of productive vocabulary knowledge acquisition,there was interaction effect between word exposure frequency and word processing.Results of simple effects test indicated that productive vocabulary knowledge acquisition was more contingent on word processing than word exposure frequency.Besides there were significantly different vocabulary acquisition results between different incidental conditions.Four reasons contributed for that were also inducted from the interview recordings namely comprehensible input,different frequency input,tasks effectiveness,and the allocation of attention.Based on the results,both theoretical and pedagogical implications for the stakeholders of English language teaching and learning were listed.The limitations of the current study as well as some practical suggestions for further investigations were also mentioned in the end.