An Empirical Study On The Effects Of Medium Of Instruction On Non-English Major Students Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge Acquisition

In foreign language classroom teaching,vocabulary teaching has been widely controversial.Scholars agree that vocabulary as the core part of language learning,plays a key role in improving the language proficiency of learners.However,using an intentional or incidental teaching method has still aroused heated debate.Incidental learning indeed contributes to enlarge learner's vocabulary,but in such a limited class time,the teaching effect is not so obvious.At the same time,since the fall of the grammar-translation teaching method,whether the students' native language can be used in a foreign language classroom teaching has become the focus of discussion.Some experts who were influenced by the immersion teaching method insisted that the mother tongue should not appear in the foreign language classroom.As a matter of fact,the immersion method does not prohibit the use of the mother tongue in the classroom,and some empirical support for the use of the student's mother language as a potential aid of foreign language teaching can be found.Does the use of the mother tongue hinder or promote the intentional learning of vocabulary? In order to answer this question,based on the input enhancement theory,the depth of information processing theory and noticing hypothesis,this paper decided to use the medium of instruction(MoI)as a variable to examine the effects of different types of MoI on non-English major students' receptive vocabulary knowledge acquisition,and trying to answer the following questions:1.Which type of medium of instruction is more effective for learning concrete words?2.Which type of medium of instruction is more effective for learning abstract words?3.Which type of medium of instruction is more effective on the retention of receptive vocabulary knowledge?Two classes consisting of 70 non-English majors from Hunan University participated in this experiment.Class one received a reading material through L2 MoI,and the other one is set up to receive a reading material through L2+L1 MoI.The subjects took part in three tests in total.The first one is VST(vocabulary size test)to ensure the vocabulary size of the subjects is nearly at the same level,and two posttests(immediate post-tests and delayed post-tests).Through utilizing the Independent-Sample T-Test and Paired-Sample T-Test of the SPSS 24.0,the author cananalyze those experimental data to search for forceful support.The main findings are as follows:(1)The result of immediate post-test indicated that L2+L1 medium of instruction is more effective for learning concrete words,and there exists a significant difference.(2)The result of immediate post-test showed that L2+L1 medium of instruction is more effective for learning abstract words,and there exists a significant difference.(3)The result of delayed post-test suggested that L2+L1 medium of instruction is more effective on the retention of receptive vocabulary knowledge,and there exists a significant difference.L2+L1 medium of instruction is a form of input enhancement which provides extensive repetition of words and phrases with two languages.The author draws some implications from this study.First of all,different types of the medium of instruction have different effects on vocabulary teaching.L2+L1 medium of instruction not only is a benefit for the learning of concrete words but also facilitates the learning of abstract words.At the same time,with regard to the retention of receptive vocabulary knowledge,using L2+L1 medium of instruction has a better effect.Based on these findings,it can offer some advice for practical for researchers who are interested in the field of intentional vocabulary learning and teachers to promote students' vocabulary learning.