A Study On The Effects Of Reading Task Involvement Load On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Of Senior High School Students

How to promote learners’ vocabulary acquisition has been a major concern of second language acquisition research.In recent years,scholars at home and abroad have conducted numerous studies and explorations on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition.Among them,the researches based on Involvement Load Hypothesis which was proposed by Laufer and Hulstijn(2001)are the most popular.The hypothesis holds that activities with more task-induced involvement load(IL)would result in better vocabulary acquisition.The experiments of Laufer and Hulstijn(2001,2003)have also verified this hypothesis.However,in the past 20 years,the validity of the hypothesis has aroused different opinions among international and domestic counterparts,i.e.some researchers agree with it,while others question it.In view of this,how successful the hypothesis is must be a worthwhile issue which needs further verifications and discussions.On the strength of Involvement Load Hypothesis(ILH)and The Theory of Depths of Processing,this research endeavors to testify the validity of Involvement Load Hypothesis by exploring the effects of reading task involvement load on IVA of senior high school students.This research aims to answer the following three questions:(1)What are the effects of reading tasks with different involvement loads on IVA in immediate and delayed test?(2)What are the effects of reading tasks with same involvement load on IVA in immediate and delayed test?(3)Is there a difference between the immediate effects and delayed effects on IVA for each task? If yes,what are the differences?In this research,75 subjects of the same English proficiency from Grade Two were divided into three groups randomly.Participants in each group were required to complete different reading tasks--reading + filling in the blanks with glossary(Group 1),reading + filling in the blanks without glossary(Group 2),reading + sentence-making with glossary(Group 3).The amount of involvement load for three tasks is 2,3,3 respectively.After the treatment,all participants received immediate tests instantly.Then one weeks later,the delayed tests were conducted.The content of two tests was same but the order of vocabulary was different.Moreover,the researcher interviewed three subjects randomly from each group after each test,and the results were used as supplementary data for the experiment.After the whole treatment was completed,SPSS 23.0 was utilized for data analysis.The results show:(1)Reading tasks with different involvement loads exert significantly different effects on IVA in immediate and delayed test.In general,the higher involvement load a task induces,the better the learner’s IVA effects are.This result fully supports the Involvement Load Hypothesis.(2)Reading tasks with same involvement load have significantly different effects on IVA in immediate and delayed test.This result refutes Involvement Load Hypothesis.(3)There is a significant difference between immediate effects and delayed effects on IVA for each task,and immediate effects are significantly better than delayed effects.It implies that vocabulary loss exists in each group.Among them,reading plus blank-filling without glossary task has the most vocabulary loss.The present study produces certain theoretical and pedagogical significance.Theoretically,it provides empirical evidence to ILH and IVA.Pedagogically,teachers and students can develop vocabulary more effectively and flexibly via IVA.In addition,the research indicates that teachers need to guide students to review and consolidate the newly-learned vocabulary consciously in time to achieve satisfying retention effects.