Effects Of Glosses And Involvement Loads On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Through Reading

With the increasing recognition of the centrality of lexical development in Second Language (L2) and foreign language acquisition, the concept of Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition (IVA) was put forward which held that learners incidentally acquired vocabularies through reading. And it has been proved that IVA does exist in L2 and foreign language learning and furthermore it is complementary to intentional study. However, it is slow and ineffective to acquire vocabulary incidentally only by reading. So researchers begin to explore instructional interventions such as task-induced involvement and glosses in order to promote incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading. The present paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of task-induced involvement and glosses on incidental vocabulary acquisition and retention.In the present study, an experiment was administered to investigate the effects of task-induced involvement and glosses on incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading with the aim to explore an effective way of improving reading skills while increasing incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading.98 sophomore majoring in English from Chongqing Nanfang Translators University of SISU were involved in this study and they were divided into five groups:Group A with no gloss+ reading and translating sentences, Group B with single gloss+ reading and translating sentences, Group C with multiple-choice gloss+ reading and translating sentences, Group D with multiple-choice gloss+ reading and answering questions and Group E with single gloss+reading and answering questions. The five groups read the same article. Before the experiment a statistic analysis of college entrance examination scores of the five groups was carried out, which shows there is no statistical difference among the five groups. Then each group was assigned with different glosses and different task-induced involvement loads. The subjects were asked to read the article with target words and comprehend the main meaning of the passage without telling them there was a vocabulary test later. After finishing the reading passage and attached tasks, a paper of vocabulary test is handed out. One week later, they were given another posttest of vocabulary with the same content as the immediate test, but the order of vocabulary is slightly changed. Data collected from the two posttests were analyzed by SPSS 13.0. Results indicated that 1) glosses are better than no glosses in incidental vocabulary acquisition and retention; 2) Chinese multiple-choice glosses have more effective effects on incidental vocabulary acquisition than Chinese single glosses; 3) higher task-induced involvement loads will lead to better acquisition and retention than reading with lower task-induced involvement loads; 4) the acquisition and retention effects of the incidentally acquired vocabulary in different glosses with different task-induced involvement loads are different. Chinese multiple-choice gloss+reading and translating sentences was the most effective and Chinese single gloss+reading and answering questions was the worst.The present study is of theoretical and practical significance. It offers some help to the compiling of English extensive reading materials and extracurricular reading materials. Besides, it enhances the understanding towards using glosses and different task-induced involvement loads in reading. And it offers guidance on reading and incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading.