A Study On The Impact Of Vocabulary Learning Methods On English Majors' Lexical Knowledge

As the basic unit of language,vocabulary plays an important role in second language learning.Hence,the issue of how to learn vocabulary has always been concerned by researchers.Although paired-associate learning(PAL)and extensive reading(ER)are two common methods of vocabulary learning for most learners,the effectiveness of both methods is controversial in the previous research.In terms of research methods,previous studies pay more heed to the measurement of learners' explicit lexical knowledge rather than implicit vocabulary knowledge.With the development of neurolinguistics and the application of electroencephalogram(EEG)technology in the study of second language acquisition(SLA),researchers can employ more effective technical means to measure implicit lexical knowledge.Thus,in this study,the author tries to shed light on the impact of different learning methods(ER or PAL)upon learners' English explicit and implicit lexical knowledge as well as their vocabulary retention by combining electroencephalogram(EEG)technology.In this study,the immediate and delayed post-exposure tests were employed in between-subjects design.36 freshmen majoring in English from Northwest Normal University were randomly assigned to extensive reading and paired-associate learning conditions in order to conduct an 8-week vocabulary learning and measurement experiment.English-Chinese word meaning tests and lexical semantic decision tasks were used to collect the behavior data and EEG data of learners respectively.The specific questions to be addressed are as the following:(1)Do ER and PAL make differential contributions to explicit lexical knowledge?(2)Do ER and PAL make differential contributions to implicit lexical knowledge?(3)Do the subjects show different short-term and long-term memory by ER and PAL learning conditions at behavioral level? If yes,what are the differences?The results showed that(1)both vocabulary learning methods had a positive effect on the explicit lexical knowledge,but PAL was much more effective than ER.(2)The reaction time and average accuracy of PAL group were significantly better than that of ER group,while the N400 time window and ERP amplitude in EEG immediate post-test showed there was no significant difference between both groups,which was consistent with the results of behavioral research that at least a certain degree of implicit lexical knowledge would be generated after a period of explicit wordlist learning.(3)Both groups made contributions to short-term vocabulary retention but PAL group was considerably more effective than ER group.Regarding long-term memory,there was no significant memory decline in both groups.The results suggest that,at least in the short-term learning process,paired-associate learning is more effective than learning by extensive reading in terms of vocabulary retention and development of explicit and implicit lexical knowledge.In light of the relationship between explicit and implicit lexical knowledge,the research results support the interface position,that is,explicit knowledge can be transformed into implicit knowledge.In terms of lexical processing,paired-associate learning seems to be more effective in helping learners create explicit links between L2 form and L1 meaning,as well as facilitating processing fluency of target words in the short term.