A Study Of The Effects Of Gloss On Senior High School Students' Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Through English Timed Reading

Vocabulary is the most basic element of a language and it plays a significant role in language learning process.However,for many English learners,vocabulary is one of the major difficulties.Nevertheless,Incidental vocabulary acquisition while reading is widely considered as an efficient way to enlarge vocabulary.Therefore,many researchers have been seeking methods to promote incidental vocabulary acquisition while reading.Gloss has been proved an efficient way,and it is of great significance to incidental vocabulary acquisition while reading.However,researchers differ in which languages and types of gloss benefit incidental vocabulary acquisition the most.This research studies the effects of different languages of gloss and different locations of gloss on incidental vocabulary acquisition in timed reading.Questionnaires are also employed to study the opinions of students on glosses and they are also asked to answer three questions.1.Is there any significant difference among different types of gloss on incidental vocabulary acquisition in immediate vocabulary test? 2.Is there any significant difference among different types of gloss on incidental vocabulary acquisition in delayed vocabulary test? 3.What are the students' attitudes to different gloss in reading materials?166 students from four parallel classes in Grade Two from Number 1 Middle School of Hohhot are chosen as the subjects of this research.These students are believed to have the similar level of vocabulary accumulation and they take part in the 3-week experiment.They are divided into 7 groups randomly,and each group is required to read passages with different types of gloss including Chinese marginal gloss,Chinese endnote gloss English marginal gloss,English endnote gloss,Chinese and English marginal gloss,Chinese and English endnote gloss and null gloss respectively.After reading passages,students need to run an immediate vocabulary test and delayed vocabulary test.Collected data are analyzed through SPSS24.0.The results suggest that gloss of new words play a significant role in incidental vocabulary acquisition in immediate vocabulary test and the null gloss group memorizes the least of vocabulary in this test.Results of delayed vocabulary test indicate that even if retaining effects of vocabulary continue worsening,groups with gloss still outperform null gloss group.What's more,most students hope bilingual marginal gloss can be provided in reading.Based on theories such as Involvement Load Hypothesis,Cognitive Loading Theory and Depth of Processing Theory,the research results are analyzed.Based on this research,insights to vocabulary teaching and publishing compilers in English materials are put forward.Senior high school teachers and editors in publishing field are supposed to try their best to provide the most suitable English reading materials for students in order to gradually improve their English level.