Effects Of Different Types Of Post-reading Tasks On Junior High School Students’ Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

This study aims to explore the effects of different types of post-reading tasks on junior high school students’ incidental vocabulary acquisition,to be specific,their immediate vocabulary acquisition and delayed vocabulary retention.Currently,many studies have proved the feasibility and effectiveness of vocabulary learning through post-reading tasks,but the studies covering the effects of different post-reading tasks on students’ incidental vocabulary acquisition are few,and the empirical studies in junior high schools are even fewer.Based on Output Hypothesis,Depth of Processing Hypothesis and Involvement Load Hypothesis,this study aims to explore the effects of three post-reading tasks(Question and Answer task,Translation task and Summary task)on junior high school students’ vocabulary learning.The research questions to be addressed are as follows:(1)What are the effects of three post-reading tasks on students’ immediate vocabulary acquisition in junior high school?(2)What are the effects of three post-reading tasks on students’ delayed vocabulary retention in junior high school?This study adopted quantitative and qualitative methods.In quantitative research,an experiment was conducted.The participants were 90 Grade 8 students selected from three parallel classes at a junior high school in Wuxi.The teaching material used in this experiment was chosen from TEENS.In order to examine students’ immediate vocabulary acquisition and delayed vocabulary retention,the instruments adopted a pre-test(vocabulary size test),and two post-tests(vocabulary knowledge tests).The data collected were analyzed by one-way ANOVA.In qualitative research,a semi-structured interview was employed,with 3 subjects chosen from each group,to probe into students’ understanding of how different post-reading tasks facilitate their vocabulary acquisition.Major findings of the experiment were as follows:In the immediate post-test,there were significant differences among the three post-reading tasks.To be specific,there were significant differences between Question and Answer task and Translation task,and there were significant differences between Question and Answer task and Summary task.However,there were no differences between Translation task and Summary task.The mean score showed that Question and Answer task had the most remarkable effect on students’ immediate vocabulary acquisition,because students’ attention was more focused and their ability to process information improved when answering questions.In the delayed post-test,there were significant differences among the three post-reading tasks.Specifically,there were significant differences between Translation task and Question and Answer task,and there were significant differences between Translation task and Summary task However,there were no differences between Question and Answer task and Summary task.The mean score showed that Translation task had the most remarkable effect on students’ delayed vocabulary retention,because students’ ability to encode and store information in long-term memory improved and their learning motivation and learning needs were inspired when they translate those sentences.The pedagogical implications are as follows:(1)the target words should be designed in Q&A-based post-reading tasks in order for students to memorize them step by step according to the context;(2)the target words should be designed in Chinese-combined post-reading tasks in order for students to memorize them by using their mother tongue.Some limitations of the study were as follows:(1)the number of participants of this study involved was limited;(2)the number of target words of this study was too small;(3)the experiment time lasted only one month;(4)only 3 post-reading tasks were involved.Suggestions for future studies can be:(1)a large quantity of students from different grades with different English proficiency should be selected;(2)more target words with different parts of speech are advised;(3)the experiment time can be extended;(4)different types of tasks can be selected and compared.