A Study on the Effects of Chinese EFL Learners’ English Proficiency and Involvement Load on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 76
Author(s):  
Yao Fan
Keyword(s):  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
Interactive Effect ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Involvement Load ◽  
Target Words

The effects of EFL learners’ English proficiency and involvement load induced by tasks on incidental vocabulary acquisition are observed in this study. 163 students of non-English majors in a local university of China were divided into two groups of different English proficiency according to their scores of College English Test Band 4 (CET-4). The students in each group were randomly assigned one of three tasks (reading-for-comprehension, blank-filling, and writing) involving 10 target words. Fifteen minutes after they finished the task, they were required to take an immediate vocabulary test about the target words. Two weeks later, they were asked to take the same kind of vocabulary test to examine their delayed memory of the target words. All of the students did not know about the vocabulary tests beforehand. The results show that: in the process of immediate incidental vocabulary acquisition, both learners’ English proficiency and involvement load have a main effect on immediate memory, but the interactive effect of these two factors on incidental vocabulary acquisition is not significant; in the vocabulary retention test, learners’ English proficiency does not have a significant main effect on delayed memory, but the main effect of involvement load is still significant; at the same time, the interactive effect of these two factors is still not significant.

scholarly journals A Verification of Involvement Load Hypothesis on Chinese Adult English Learners

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Shuyun Huang
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Vocabulary Test ◽  
Chinese Adult ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary ◽  
Adult English Learners ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Involvement Load ◽  
Involvement Load Hypothesis

The present research designed six tasks with various distributions of involvement components: need, search and evaluation to verify the predictability of Involvement Load Hypothesis on Chinese adult English learners. The results showed that the vocabulary exercises did facilitate the incidental vocabulary acquisition, but the exercise with higher involvement load did not necessarily benefit the students more than the exercise with lower involvement. Three components of involvement did not reveal the same effect on incidental vocabulary acquisition. And the superiority of exercise with higher involvement load existing in the immediate vocabulary test did not survive in the delayed vocabulary test. In the delayed vocabulary test there were not any statistically significant differences among six groups. The further analysis reported besides the cognitive processing aroused by the tasks, other critical factors also worked on the incidental vocabulary acquisition: inference skill and repetition of occurrence.

INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY ACQUISITION FROM ORAL AND WRITTEN DIALOGUE JOURNALS

1999 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Brown ◽  
Sherri L. Sagers ◽  
Carrie LaPorte
Keyword(s):  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Dialogue Journals ◽  
Natural Sources ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Individual Learner ◽  
Qualitative Evidence ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

This paper is in answer to Ellis's (1994) call for more research about vocabulary acquisition from oral input in four areas. It is a hypothesis-generating study of nine advanced university EFL learners' incidental vocabulary acquisition from oral and written dialogue journals over a semester's time. All teacher and student entries in the two types of journals were transcribed and analyzed using WordCruncher (1993). The analyses compare the characteristics of the input to the learners in the two modes as well as quantitative and qualitative evidence of vocabulary acquisition by the learners from the two modes. Findings of this study indicate several specific places (14 statements) where further research could be undertaken. These fit in three of the areas Ellis named for exploration: (a) “the nature of the input,” (b) “the role of interaction,” and (c) “individual learner factors” (p. 1). The findings suggest measures that can be used for quantitative and qualitative evidence of vocabulary acquisition from natural sources

The effects of word form variation and frequency on second language incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Lee Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Marginal Effect ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Morphological Form ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Target Words

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate whether frequency of occurrence and the level of morphological form variation (i.e., none, inflectional, and derivational) exhibited by target words might interact to affect incidental acquisition through reading. An intact class of English as a foreign language learners (n=32) was given a copy of an unmodified 37,611-token English novel containing 49 target nonce words to read within two weeks. After reading, they were given two unexpected forms of assessment (meaning recall translation and meaning recognition multiple-choice). Meaning recall results indicate an average of 10 words having been acquired and meaning recognition results indicate an average of 25 words having been acquired. For the meaning recall data, a significant interaction effect between word form variation and frequency was found. Results point towards the conclusion that an increase in frequency may have a beneficial effect on acquisition for words whose tokens vary inflectionally, a marginal effect for words that do not vary in form, and little to no effect on words that vary derivationally. Examination of the meaning recognition acquisition results for a subset of 29 target words occurring 2–4 times to control for frequency of exposure found a significant effect for word form variation. Post hoc comparisons indicated that participants acquired significantly more target words that did not vary in form. There was no significant difference in acquisition between those that varied inflectionally and derivationally. Taken as a whole, the results of the current study indicate that word form variation does affect incidental acquisition and it can indeed present second language learners with difficulties, especially when less frequent input is received of words that vary in form. Implications for future incidental vocabulary acquisition research and classroom pedagogy incorporating reading and vocabulary instruction are discussed.

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