A Study On Incidental Vocahulary Acquisition Of College Students Under Different Modes

The purpose of the study is to compare the acquisition of receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge under listen-only,read-only input modes,and to gain insight into the correlation between semantic comprehension and incidental acquisition of two types of vocabulary knowledge underpinned by comprehensible input hypothesis,noticing hypothesis and involvement load hypothesis.The experiment lasted four weeks.Fifty sophomores majoring in Navigation from a university in Liaoning Province joined in the experiment.They took part in immediate test and delayed post-test.The immediate test includes two learning tasks:(1)10 true-false questions;(2)an immediate vocabulary test.Three weeks later,they participated in the delayed vocabulary post-test and completed a questionnaire.The findings of this study are presented as follows.Firstly,input modes can affect learners' acquisition of different types of vocabulary knowledge,and it has a more significant impact on the acquisition of receptive vocabulary knowledge than that on productive vocabulary knowledge.Secondly,in light of the vocabulary retention effects,it is found that input modes have influence on short-term memory of vocabulary knowledge,but the influence is not permanent.It reveals that if learners do not review in time,the effect of input modes on vocabulary acquisition will gradually decrease.Thirdly,there is a certain correlation between semantic comprehension and incidental vocabulary acquisition,and the correlation is also affected by input modes.The present study has some instructional implications for learners' English vocabulary learning.In order to achieve the best vocabulary learning effect,teachers and learners should consciously cultivate the teaching or learning ability of combining incidental learning with intensive learning,so as to deepen students' impression of vocabulary and improve the learning effects on productive vocabulary knowledge.