Effects Of Gloss Types On Non-English Major Students' Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Through Reading

Vocabulary learning is an indispensable part of language learning,and vocabulary size has a direct effect on language learners' ability of using the language.Many researches have demonstrated that vocabulary can be acquired incidentally through reading,but the efficiency of such vocabulary learning is far from satisfactory.For this problem,researchers pointed out that to provide glosses for the new words is helpful for improving the efficacy of incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading.However,the relevant studies on glosses at home mainly focused on the comparison of the effect between text with gloss and text without gloss,or among different single glosses,there are few studies on the comparison of the effect between different multi-mode glosses.Therefore,study on the effect of different multi-mode glosses on incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading will surely have an important influence on the improvement of college students' incidental vocabulary acquisition proficiency.On the basis of this research background,this paper,by employing both qualitative and quantitative study,aims to investigate not only the effectiveness of three types of vocabulary glosses(Chinese plus picture gloss,English plus picture gloss and no gloss)on the non-English majors' incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading,but also the effectiveness of Chinese plus picture gloss and English plus picture gloss on different vocabulary proficient subjects' incidental vocabulary acquisition.In order to realize this,the author chose 90 non-English major freshmen as subjects,and divided them into three groups randomly.They were required to read an English reading material containing 10 target words under three glossing conditions,and finish the reading comprehension test in limited time.After reading comprehension test,they were asked to have an immediate vocabulary test at once,and a delayed vocabulary test two weeks later.In order to guarantee the reliability and validity of the experiment,the author carried out the second reading comprehension test,immediate vocabulary test and delayed vocabulary test among these 90 subjects.At last,through an interview among 5 randomly selected subjects from each of the two multi-mode gloss groups,the author further had a clear understanding of their attitudes towards these two multi-mode glosses.The research results demonstrated that:(1)In the aspect of short-term vocabularymemory,the positive effect of Chinese plus picture gloss on subjects' short-term incidental vocabulary acquisition is the most significant,followed by that of English plus picture gloss.However,the effect of no gloss is the least significant;(2)In the aspect of long-term vocabulary retention,similarly,the positive effect of Chinese plus picture gloss is also the most obvious,and then is that of English plus picture gloss,while the effect of no gloss is the least obvious;(3)No matter for the larger vocabulary group or smaller vocabulary group,Chinese plus picture gloss always plays a more positive role than English plus picture gloss in improving subjects' incidental vocabulary acquisition proficiency,not only in short-term vocabulary memory,but also in long-term vocabulary retention.As a result,English teachers should pay more attention to the effect of Chinese plus picture gloss on incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading,they should also encourage students to learn vocabulary incidentally and efficiently by using this gloss type,aiming to accelerate the improvement of their incidental vocabulary acquisition efficacy.