Effects Of Task-induced Involvement Load On Incidental English Vocabulary Acquisition Through Listening

This thesis mainly aims to substantiate the effectiveness of Involvement Load Hypothesis in L2incidental vocabulary learning in EFL listening comprehension in China. Involvement Load Hypothesis was put forward by Laufer and Hulstijn in2001, proposing that the construct of involvement is composed of three components:need, search, and evaluation, and that the task inducing higher involvement load is likely to produce better vocabulary retention effects. Although previous studies about the effect of involvement load have been numerous, few researchers have studied the Involvement Load Hypothesis from the aspect of listening comprehension. Besides, we found that the previous task had been conducted without the consideration of learning strategies. Actually, learners may employ their internally triggered learning strategies when they try to fulfill the externally decided tasks. Therefore, the present study focuses on examining the relationship between involvement load and listening strategies as well as the influence of Involvement Load Hypothesis on incidental vocabulary learning through listening.The research data were collected with mixed methods, including one listening test, two vocabulary posttests, one questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview. Three groups of Non-English major freshmen in Zhejiang Shuren University took part in the experiment. The three different tasks with different amounts of involvement load were assigned to them randomly. All the data were collected and analyzed by SPSS after the treatment.The major findings are presented as follows:1) Vocabulary retention of different tasks differs from each other, and Involvement Load Hypothesis is further proved.2)’Evaluation’and’search’both affect vocabulary retention to some extent. The higher the degree of’evaluation’or’search’is, the better the result in vocabulary retention will be.3) The involvement load induced by the task does exert influence on the learners’choice of listening strategy. Among the three kinds of listening strategies, the most affected one is the affective strategy.The present study has great practical value as well as theoretical significance:firstly, it examines the effectiveness of Involvement Load Hypothesis from a new perspective, and thus provides theoretical basis for incidental vocabulary acquisition through listening; secondly, the author recognizes the importance of tasks and the negative influence of involvement load on affective strategy, which sheds some light for college English vocabulary teaching and learning in China. Teachers should design tasks with different involvement loads to direct learners’attention to the new words, and cultivate students’ awareness of learning strategies.