Effects Of Different Reading Tasks On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

Studies have shown that extensive reading contributes to incidental vocabulary learning. In the past two decades, researches at home and abroad have been conducted to investigate the factors that may influence incidental vocabulary acquisition during L2 reading. Some theories concerning vocabulary acquisition have emerged, among which Laufer's Involvement Load Hypothesis receives wide appreciation for its easy access to measurement. The theory holds that any task can induce some degree of involvement load; the more involvement load, the better vocabulary acquisition.The present study is to examine the effects of reading tasks with different involvement loads on the incidental acquisition of English vocabulary. Based on the Involvement Load Hypothesis, four task conditions (reading comprehension plus answering questions, reading plus filling-in blanks, reading plus finding the meanings of target words and reading plus making sentences containing the target words) will be compared in the study. The present study addresses the three research questions as follows:1. Do the reading tasks with different involvement loads have different effects incidental vocabulary acquisition?2. Do the reading tasks with a higher involvement load result in more effective incidental vocabulary acquisition than tasks with a lower involvement load?3. Do the input reading task and output reading task, with the same involvement load, have the same effect on subjects'vocabulary acquisition?In the study, the author investigated sophomores from four classes of HuaZhong University of Science and Technology, and the students were randomly assigned to the four reading tasks during normal class time. After the completion of the task, the work sheets were collected, and the students were unexpectedly given an immediate vocabulary test in which they were required to provide Chinese translations or English explanations for a list of ten target words. One week later, they received a delayed vocabulary test. The results of the present study show that except the insignificant difference between Task of reading plus filling-in blanks and Task of reading plus finding the meanings of target words, differences among the other tasks were significantly different. Tasks with a higher involvement load were more effective for vocabulary acquisition than tasks with a lower involvement load. And with the same involvement load, the input task, Task of reading plus making sentences containing the target words, provided significantly better effect than output task, Task of reading plus finding the meanings of target words in incidental vocabulary acquisition.On the basis of the findings, some suggestions were given. As tasks with a higher involvement load are more effective than tasks with a lower involvement load, teachers may design different task-based exercises to learners depending on the learning goal they intend to reach. Students should also be informed about the effectiveness of different learning tasks in incidental vocabulary acquisition so that they could pay more attention to the effectiveness of their learning tasks. Teachers should encourage learners to perform output task, such as sentence making and composition writing so long as students have reached certain language proficiency to do so and students should try to use new words in their conversations and compositions.