| It is pointed out in the English Curriculum Standard (2011) (ECS) that from primary school to senior high school, students should gradually master level-2 vocabulary, level-5 vocabulary and level-7 vocabulary. In this regard, it becomes pretty meaningful for students to try their best to acquire different meanings of so many ECS words. Language input can be viewed as the premise of language acquisition. For students in China,textbooks absolutely play an irreplaceable role among so many forms of language input. In this sense, whether textbooks can offer good opportunities to extend vocabulary breadth and deepen vocabulary depth matters a lot.A large number of studies have been conducted on second language vocabulary acquisition (SLVA). It is suggested that frequency and range have positive influence oin vocabulary acquisition. Among so many studies, however, few can be found to have explored how frequency and range in the textbooks influence students' vocabulary acquisition. Considering the limitations of previous studies,this study chose 92 words from ECS vocabulary as target words, and explored the effects of frequency and range of those words in Go for it on 167 Grade 8 students' vocabulary acquisition in breadth and depth.This study aims to answer the following 3 questions: (1) How well do participants acquire ECS vocabulary both in breadth and in depth? (2) How do input frequency and range affect students' vocabulary acquisition in breadth? (3) How do input frequency and range affect students' vocabulary acquisition in depth?Research findings indicate that: (1) in breadth, 51% of the participants had acquired ECS vocabulary in terms of form-meaning connection. The worst acquired word was known to only 1% of the students while the best acquired word was known by all students.In terms of depth, for each word, about 0.43 out of 2 tested senses was acquired. Even for the best acquired polysemous word, students could only give its 1.04 meanings; (2) both input frequency and range were positively correlated with students' acquisition rate of ECS vocabulary in breadth; (3) neither frequency nor range was significantly correlated with students' ECS vocabulary acquisition in depth. However, the acquisition rates of different senses proved to be strongly correlated with the frequency and range of these senses in the textbooks if each tested sense was investigated separately. Further analysis showed that merely 3 tested words appeared in the textbook in different meanings, with most of the tested words not even presented in their second meanings examined in the test; (4) input frequency and range in the textbook alone were not enough to explain the variance in vocabulary acquisition either in breadth or in depth. The situation where some seldom repeated words or senses whereas enjoyed relatively high acquisition rate was largely caused by different sources of the target words, contributions made by teachers' formal instruction and students' self-learning, benefits of glossary, and the assistance of context.On the contrary, some words appeared with high frequency or high range but failed to be recalled by students. One explanation was that high frequency didn't always mean high range. Besides, the lack of salience also partly led to this result.Based on the findings of the current study, it is suggested that both textbook compilers and teachers should attach great importance to frequency and range of ECS vocabulary in the textbooks, making sure that vocabulary recycling is conducted in a proper way. |
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