The Effects Of Textual Enhancement And Reading Tasks With Different Involvement Loads On Incidental Acquisition Of L2 Vocabulary

In the past few decades,numerous studies have been conducted to investigate incidental vocabulary acquisition,many of which were carried out within the framework of the “Involvement Load Hypothesis” proposed by Laufer & Hulstijn(2001).However,few have attempted to employ the multi-factor design to examine the effects of task-induced involvement load and other variables on vocabulary acquisition.Therefore,the present study aims to employ two factorial designs to explore the effects of textual enhancement and reading tasks with different involvement loads on incidental vocabulary acquisition.The research questions are as follows:(1)What is the effect of textual enhancement on EFL learner's incidental vocabulary acquisition?(2)What is the effect of reading tasks with different involvement loads on EFL learner's incidental vocabulary acquisition?(3)Is there an interactive effect between textual enhancement and reading tasks with different involvement loads on EFL learner's incidental vocabulary acquisition?The present experiment lasted for 5 weeks,adopting a pretest-treatment-posttest design.A total of 84 non-English major freshmen from Zhengzhou University participated in this experiment,who were divided into two groups.One group received an enhanced reading text in which 8 target words were highlighted in bold type and underlining,and the other group received the same text without any words enhanced.Then,each group was randomly divided into two subgroups.One was required to complete the task of gap-filling with the involvement index of 2,and the other was required to complete the task of sentence-making with the involvement index of 3.After the treatment,the vocabulary acquisition outcomes were assessed by the immediate form-recognition and meaning tests.Then two weeks later,the delayed tests were conducted.The data from these tests were finally gathered and analyzed by the researcher.The findings of the present study showed no significant effect for textual enhancement on incidental vocabulary acquisition,whereas reading tasks with different involvement loads had different effects.Also,it should be noted that the effects of these two variables on incidental vocabulary acquisition were influenced by the testing time.Besides,the present study found that there was no significant interactive effect between these two variables on incidental vocabulary acquisition.The present study has some theoretical and pedagogical implications.Theoretically,this study not only confirms that incidental vocabulary acquisition can be achieved through doing some reading tasks,but also enriches the research body of the Involvement Load Hypothesis.In the meantime,it also points out that textual enhancement alone has a limited effect on vocabulary learning.Besides,the present study provides some pedagogical implications for teaching or editing reading material.Teachers and textbook editors are encouraged to provide some effective reading tasks and enhanced techniques to facilitate the effect of incidental vocabulary acquisition in reading.