An Experimental Study On The Effects Of Language Production And Language Proficiency On Vocabulary Acquisition Of Senior High School English Learners

According to the General Senior High School English Curriculum Standards(2017 Edition Revised2020),vocabulary learning is a comprehensive language practice activity combined with specific themes and contexts.Accordingly,teachers need to consciously create contexts for students to use vocabulary according to the theme of teaching,so that students can use the contexts and their personal experiences related to the theme to practice meaningful language comprehension and output activities in order to achieve vocabulary acquisition through experience.However,there are still problems of decontextualization of vocabulary learning and singularity of vocabulary teaching methods in the reality of vocabulary teaching.In view of this,this study will explore the effects of language production and language proficiency on the vocabulary acquisition of senior high school English learners through a specific language production task(the continuation task)based on the current situation of senior high school English learners’ vocabulary learning,and clarify the mechanisms of the effects generation in order to provide inspiration for senior high school English vocabulary teaching.This study is based on input hypothesis,output hypothesis,interactive alignment model,and information processing theory,and uses research methods such as educational experimental method,literature research method,and testing method.Fifty English learners from Class 6,Grade 1,the second senior high school in Shihezi,Xinjiang,were used as the research objects,and the research tools of language level test paper,language production test paper and vocabulary acquisition effect test paper were used to investigate the effects of language production and language proficiency on the vocabulary acquisition of senior high school learners.The following three questions were explored: 1)What are the effects of language production on the vocabulary acquisition of senior high school English learners? This question contains three sub-dimensions,namely,what is the effect of language production on the acquisition of word form,word meaning and word use of senior high school English learners? 2)What are the effects of language proficiency on the vocabulary acquisition of senior high school English learners?This question contains three sub-dimensions,namely,what is the effect of language proficiency on the acquisition of word form,word meaning and word use of senior high school English learners? 3)What are the interactive effects of language production and language proficiency on the vocabulary acquisition of senior high school English learners? This question contains three sub-dimensions,namely,what are the interactive effects of language production and language proficiency on the acquisition of word form,word meaning and word use of senior high school English learners?The study found that: 1)Senior high school English learners’ language production had a significant effect on their vocabulary acquisition.Specifically,in both the immediate and delayed post-tests,the significance of One-way ANOVA results between the participants’ language production scores and their word-form acquisition,word-meaning acquisition and word-use acquisition scores were less than 0.05,and the higher the mean language production scores,the higher the vocabulary acquisition scores of the group.2)Senior high school learners’ language proficiency had a significant effect on their vocabulary acquisition.Specifically,in both the immediate and delayed post-tests,the significance of One-way ANOVA results was less than 0.05 between the participants’ language proficiency scores and their word-form acquisition,word-meaning acquisition and word-use acquisition scores,and the higher the mean language proficiency score,the higher the group’s vocabulary acquisition score.3)Senior high school learners’ language production and language level were significant predictors of their vocabulary acquisition(p < 0.05),and there were some differences in the strength of their prediction of word-form acquisition,word-meaning acquisition and word-use acquisition in two aspects: first,language proficiency was a stronger predictor of word-meaning acquisition in the immediate and delayed post-tests(β= 0.480);second,language production was a stronger predictor of word-form acquisition(β= 0.821)and word-use acquisition(β= 0.653)in both the immediate and delayed post-tests.Based on the above findings,the researcher further discussed the reasons for the differences in the effects of senior high school English learners’ language production and language proficiency on their acquisition of word form,word meaning and word use,and explored the similarities and differences between this study and previous studies.Finally,the researcher offers the following three insights: first,teachers should have a deep understanding of the role of language production in facilitating learners’ vocabulary acquisition,especially in the acquisition of word-form and word-use,and encourage creativity and actively provide opportunities for exercise in the actual teaching of English.,and encourage creativity and actively provide opportunities for practice in the actual teaching of English;second,teachers should take into account students’ interests and emotions when selecting the continuation task materials in order to enhance the appeal of the content and reinforce emotional synergy;third,teachers should take into account the dimensions of vocabulary knowledge and the individual differences of learners at different language proficiency,provide different levels of language production tasks and make good use of teaching reinforcement to facilitate the acquisition of word use.