The Effect Of Glossing And Intention On Vocabulary Acquisition Through Reading

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of glossing and intention on English vocabulary acquisition through reading. Based on the theory of depths of processing proposed by Craik and Lockhart(1972), the research question of this study is specified as the following: Under which condition (intention vs. non-intention) are English as foreign language learners better able to learn new vocabulary; What are the differential effects of text with gloss, and non-gloss in facilitating L2 vocabulary acquisition for EFL learners?A total of 174 students of No. 3 Middle School of Xiamen were assigned to one of the four different treatment conditions. Students read 70 passages each including about 3 target words over a period of three months.The experiment results reveal that glosses help students learn new vocabulary, especially when the learning is intention rather than non-intention.