Researching The Effects Of Repetition On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition In Second Language Listening

In recent years,it has become an urgent issue for L2 researchers and teachers to solve the imbalance of second language(L2)learners' different language skill levels and further improve their comprehensive L2 ability.Vocabulary,as the basis of language learning,determines to a large extent the space for language proficiency improvement.Therefore,in order to find solutions for the mentioned issue,the present study attempts to explore such research questions as(1)What are the incidental vocabulary acquisition differences among word form,meaning and grammar function after the students listen for the same repetition times?(2)Which type of target word repetition,2 times,4 times or 8 times,will yield the best comprehensive incidental vocabulary acquisition? and(3)Which situation,text repetition or natural repetition,has better effects on incidental vocabulary acquisition when the target words are presented 4 times?Sixty-two English as second language students participated in the present study and took a vocabulary test before the experiment.During the experiment,participants were randomly divided into two experimental groups and listened to the material once and twice respectively.After listening,they undertook an immediate vocabulary post-test and a semi-structured interview,as well as a delayed vocabulary post-test three weeks later.From the analysis of the data,L2 listening was found to be an important input mode for incidental vocabulary acquisition.Although there was no significant difference in the acquisition of the target words under different repetition methods(text repetition or natural repetition),it turned out that the increase in the times of word repetitions was conducive to learners' incidental acquisition of vocabulary knowledge.When the target words were repeated the same number of times,acquisition of different vocabulary knowledge also demonstrated varied results,among which the acquisition of grammatical function of vocabulary was obviously better than that of word meaning.In addition,the present study provided L2 teachers with the methods regarding L2 listening and vocabulary teaching and made suggestions for the preparation and selection of L2 listening materials to facilitate vocabulary acquisition.