| One fundamental element of language is vocabulary.All the language skills are mainly based on a good mastery of vocabulary.Therefore,an increasing number of researchers and English teachers have been seeking more effective ways for English vocabulary teaching and learning.In recent years,more and more empirical researches have testified the positive role of output in English vocabulary acquisition and retention,but most of them only compared written output with oral output,or compared non-cooperative output with cooperative output to confirm which is more efficient in developing English vocabulary acquisition and retention.Few of them probed if Chinese-to-English translation and English-to-Chinese translation have different effects on English vocabulary knowledge.In the light of Output Hypothesis and Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Hypothesis,this empirical study attempts to investigate the effects of different output modes of Chinese-English translation an English-Chinese translation on junior middle school students’ receptive and productive vocabulary retention.An experiment was carried out in a junior middle school in Guangdong Province.78 students with equivalent English proficiency and vocabulary size were chosen from two classes by an English proficiency test and a vocabulary size test.They were divided into two groups(Group 1 and Group 2)and required to read a passage,the target words were printed in boldface in the reading material,and the 8 target words were listed on the word list with their pronunciation,word class and Chinese meaning in the order in which they appear in the text.After reading,the two groups of participants gave back the passage and the word list.Group 1 finished the Chinese-to-English translation task,while Group 2 performed the English-to-Chinese translation task in the stipulated time.After the treatment,they had an interview.They took the vocabulary retention test one week after the treatment,with the participants uninformed of the test.The quantitative data of the vocabulary retention test was analyzed through Independent Samples T-test.The qualitative data was processed through analyzing the participants’ different answers of interview.The results indicate that both output modes facilitate junior middle school students’ English vocabulary knowledge.Moreover,there is no significant difference between Chinese-to-English translation and English-to-Chinese translation on the receptive vocabulary retention.However,the effect of Chinese-to-English translation is more evident than that of English-to-Chinese translation on the productive vocabulary retention.The findings of this study confirm the positive effects of different output modes on junior middle school students’ English vocabulary knowledge.Therefore,it is necessary that English teachers provide more output tasks and learning opportunities for students.In the meantime,students themselves should conduct the output tasks outside class.In addition,since the Chinese-to-English translation task has a better impact on the students’ English productive vocabulary retention,teachers and students are encouraged to use different output tasks of translation in accordance with emphasis on different types of vocabulary knowledge. |
