Effects Of Processing Type And Task Repetition On EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Acquisition

Vocabulary is the basic element of language,and of vital importance to language learners.However,vocabulary learning is a headache to most low-intermediate EFL learners.Consequently,many researchers attempted to design various tasks to facilitate EFL vocabulary learning.Most of previous research was stimulated by such theories as Levels of Processing(LOP),Involvement Load Hypothesis(ILH)and Transfer Appropriate Processing(TAP),especially the ILH.Most previous studies,based on Involvement Load Hypothesis,neglected the significance of lexical form learning,and the effects of repetition of tasks on EFL vocabulary acquisition.In addition,a few studies were conducted on whether the TAP applies to different vocabulary task conditions and found that the TAP effect was influenced by many other factors.Therefore,to further explore the effects of task-based activities on vocabulary acquisition,the present study is designed to investigate the effects of processing type and task repetition on incidental vocabulary acquisition in two dimensions.The two main research questions are as follows:1.How do processing type and task repetition affect EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge of form recognition?2.How do processing type and task repetition affect EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge of meaning recall?This study employed a 4 × 2 mixed design with one between-subject factor(processing type)and one within-subject factor(task repetition).Second language acquisition was a dependent variable,including two dimensions: form recognition and meaning recall.Processing type included four levels,including low and high level of structural processing(LStrP and HStrP),low and high level of semantic processing(LSemP and HSemP).Task repetition referred to that all participants finished the processing tasks twice with an interval of one week.69 non-English major freshmen were randomly assigned to one of the four L2 vocabulary acquisition tasks.During the experiment,all the participants first finished reading and five reading comprehension questions and then were required to finish respective tasks.There are two levels of structural processing tasks,including the LStrP task(spelling recognition andword spelling writing)and the HStrP task(spelling recognition and word spelling association).There are two levels of semantic processing tasks,including the LSemP task(meaning recognition and word meaning writing)and the HSemP task(meaning recognition and word meaning association).The total task time required for the different groups was controlled the same.All the four groups finished reading and vocabulary processing tasks again one week later.All the data collected were valid.Mixed ANOVA was employed in this study to analyze the data.Key findings were concluded below: First,processing type and task repetition each had a significant main effect on EFL word form recognition and there was no interactive effect between them on word form recognition.Second,processing type and task repetition each had a significant main effect on EFL word meaning recall and there existed no interactive effect between them on word meaning recall.This study has important theoretical and pedagogical implications.Theoretically,the ILH failed to explain the task effectiveness and the TFA with more components could only be persuasive in terms of word meaning learning.At the same time,this study partly confirmed the TAP effect and the TOPRA model.Therefore,a more comprehensive model is needed for task designing.Pedagogically,teachers should help EFL learners realize that vocabulary learning is a long-term process which requires frequent mental processing.For word form learning,it is advisable to design low demanding and target words focusing tasks and for word meaning learning,the diverse association of meaning-related tasks is recommended.