Input Frequency On L2 Vocabulary Acquisition

The relationship between input and acquisition is always a major concern in SLA. And the important role input plays in SLA has been widely acknowledged by linguists and language researchers both abroad and at home. Ellis (2002), for example, advocates his Input Frequency Hypothesis that input frequency plays a key part in language acquisition. His hypothesis finds much evidence from the findings in cognitive science and psycholinguistics, especially the investigation of computational simulations based on connectionism. Nevertheless, the empirical studies on the effects input frequency on language acquisition are still lacking and insufficient.This study is a textbook-based empirical study aiming to reveal to how much extent input frequency exerts effects on second language vocabulary acquisition. The major findings are as follows: (1) The vocabulary input frequency had positive correlations with corresponding acquisition. As for the amount of acquisition, 80% high-frequency input vocabulary (HFIV) were learnt. So were about half the mid-frequency input vocabulary (MFIV) and only about one third of the low-frequency input vocabulary (LFFV). As for the growth of acquisition, the number of HFIV was significantly larger than the MFIV and LFIV. As for meanings, the acquisition of HFIV was still better than those of MFIV and LFIV. (2) Input frequency effects were insufficient for second language vocabulary acquisition. Some LFIV but not HFIV were learnt by the learners in different grades. (3) As for the differences between males and females, the females' HIFV and MIFV proficiency were obviously higher than males'. The former knew more LBFV, but were not statistically different from the males. In a word, females did better than males in second language vocabulary acquisition, and the superiority was more distinct in higher grades.(4) Over 80% HIFV were high-frequency vocabulary that were naturally high-frequent, which indicated scientific and systematic consideration of vocabulary recycling needed to be concerned in the textbook.Based on the research findings, the researcher comes to the conclusion that the input frequency has high positive correlations with second language vocabulary acquisition. The Input Frequency Hypothesis, which claims that the order of acquisition is related to its corresponding frequency, is empirically investigated in vocabulary acquisition. The HIFV words are learnt first. Nevertheless, input frequency effects are insufficient for second language vocabulary acquisition.