The Effect Of Glossing Languages And Positions In English Reading Texts On Senior High School Students' Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

Vocabulary plays an important role in learning a second language.However,in practical English teaching process,vocabulary acquisition is prone to be in low efficiency because of teachers' limited vocabulary teaching time and learners' unscientific learning methods,which has turned vocabulary items into an obstacle in the course of language learning.It was Nagy,Herman and Anderson who initially proposed the term “incidental vocabulary acquisition” in1985 after studying children's acquisition of native language and thus provided a new thought for L2 learners to acquire new words.Later,a wealth of other researchers have investigated the positive effect of reading with glosses on facilitating L2 incidental vocabulary acquisition.Nevertheless,up to now,they still did not reach a consensus on which type of glosses has a better effect on it,which has suggested a direction for the present study.On the basis of previous studies and three theories,including noticing hypothesis,the hierarchical models of bilingual memory representation and the cognitive load theory,the present study selected two glossing types,namely,glossing languages and glossing positions,and aimed to investigate the effect of these two variables on senior high school students' incidental vocabulary acquisition in reading comprehension with the expectations of providing effective reference for enriching learners' vocabulary size and improving the efficiency of incidental vocabulary acquisition.Based on this purpose,three research questions were raised as follows:(1)Which type of glossing languages,L1 glosses or L2 glosses,has a better effect on senior high school students' incidental vocabulary gain and retention under the condition of handling the same reading tasks?(2)Which type of glossing positions,interlinear,marginal or endnote glosses,can best facilitate senior high school students' incidental vocabulary gain and retention under the condition of handling the same reading tasks?(3)Is there an interaction effect between glossing languages and glossing positions on senior high school students' incidental vocabulary gain and retention under the condition of handling the same reading tasks?One hundred and twenty-five participants were chosen from two parallel science classesin grade two in a senior high school located in Ankang city,Shaanxi Province.They were randomly categorized into six groups,consisting of L1 interlinear gloss group,L1 marginal gloss group,L1 endnote gloss group,L2 interlinear gloss group,L2 marginal gloss group and L2 endnote gloss group.Before the experiment,these participants had to report their scores on the last final examination and take part in a 2,000 word level test.After two pilot studies finished by their counterparts,they had to first read five passages under one of six glossing formats and then answer the attached reading comprehension questions.Immediately afterwards,they took a vocabulary post test without being announced ahead of time,and three weeks later,they completed an unexpected delayed post test.Data in this study were analyzed through SPSS version 22.0.The result of one-way ANOVA showed that participants in six groups were homogeneous in language proficiency level and vocabulary size.The results of two univariate analyses showed that:(1)In the aspect of glossing languages,L1 glosses obviously performed better in prompting senior high school students' incidental vocabulary gain and retention;(2)As for glossing positions,marginal glosses played the most beneficial role in enhancing senior high school students' incidental vocabulary gain;however,there was no significant difference among their effects on students' retention of new vocabulary items acquired incidentally through reading;(3)Mean differences of six gloss groups did not arrive at the statistically significant level in two post tests so that glossing languages and positions had no interaction effect on senior high school students' incidental vocabulary gain and retention.This study can enrich relevant research findings and provide reference for the studies in the future.Meanwhile,it can provide helpful clues for English material compilers,front-line English teachers and lots of English learners.Moreover,in view of the limitations of the present study,the author has come up with several corresponding suggestions so as to make the follow-up research procedures more standardized and research results more scientific.