| Vocabulary learning is a crucial part of second language acquisition,which exerts a direct impact on learners’ language proficiency.How to effectively expand learners’vocabulary has been valued by scholars at home and abroad.In addition to the conventional direct vocabulary acquisition,incidental vocabulary acquisition is also concerned.Incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading is widely regarded as the most effective way.It is regarded that providing glosses on unknown words is one of the effective ways to promote learners’ incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading.Researchers have explored the effects of different types of glosses on incidental vocabulary acquisition from many different perspectives,but the results are still controversial.This research attempts to investigate the effects of different types of glosses on senior high school students’ incidental vocabulary acquisition combining two factors,the language of gloss and the position of gloss,and intends to answer the following three questions:(1)What are the effects of the language of gloss on senior high school students’ incidental vocabulary acquisition in English reading?(2)What are the effects of the position of gloss on senior high school students’ incidental vocabulary acquisition in English reading?(3)What is the interaction effect of the language of gloss and the position of gloss on senior high school students’ incidental vocabulary acquisition in English reading?In this study,a total of 90 students in Grade Two of a senior high school were selected as subjects for a eight-week experiment.In the experiment,subjects were requested to read articles with four different glosses within a limited time and afterward given a immediate vocabulary test.A week later,the subjects were given a delayed vocabulary test.Meanwhile,in order to further explore students’ attitudes towards different types of glosses,a semi-structured interview was conducted with 12 students after the immediate vocabulary test.After data collection,SPSS 24.0 was used for Two-way Between-Subjects ANOVA and the following results were obtained:(1)The language of gloss has a significant main effect on senior high school students’ incidental vocabulary acquisition through English reading,and Chinese gloss has a significantly better effect than English gloss.The majority of the interviewees also stated that Chinese gloss is more concise and time-saving.However,there is no significant main effect of the language of gloss on retention of incidental vocabulary acquisition.(2)The position of gloss has no significant main effect on senior high school students’ incidental vocabulary acquisition through English reading.Some interviewees said that marginal gloss did attract their attention,while some other interviewees claimed that,due to their previous reading habits,they did not ignore the footnote gloss in reading passage as well.The position of gloss also has no significant main effect on retention of incidental vocabulary acquisition.(3)There is no significant interaction effect between the language of gloss and the position of gloss on senior high school students’ incidental vocabulary acquisition through English reading.Similarly,they have no interaction effect on retention of incidental vocabulary acquisition.In conclusion,to some extent,this study provides some suggestions for senior high school students to promote incidental vocabulary acquisition through English reading,and it is also helpful for the editing of gloss in English reading materials. |
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