Effects of reading and writing tasks on second language vocabularyacquisition

The general consensus in the domain of second/foreign language (L2) acquisition is that learning vocabulary is essential to one's mastery of a second language, which requires L2 learners to learn a very large numberof words. Virtually all L2 learners are faced with the daunting prospect of overcoming this learning challenge. Especially for L2 beginning learners, it is inevitably demanding to grasp the basic lexical items in another language. However, one of their greatest hurdles is actually beingable to use these lexical items in language production. Hence, learnersand teachers have long been interested in knowing how L2 vocabulary is best learned. In response to learners' and teachers' interest, researchers have attempted to find out what elements should be included in L2 syllabuses and textbooks in order to provide useful information about how to pursue L2 vocabulary learning. Nevertheless, it is still unclear how tasks should be designed to facilitate the learning of such a large amount of words. It is noted that although researchers have generally agreed that learning words from input, recognizing word forms and practicing words in context have beneficial effects on L2 vocabulary growth, there has not been substantial research on whether it is helpful to combinethese three elements in an L2 classroom syllabus. This Ph.D. project is an attempt to further the understanding of how task combinations affect L2 productive vocabulary acquisition in the context of learning English as a second/foreign language in a secondary school classroom. The aim is to examine how the combinations of three post-reading L2 vocabulary learning methods, comprehending wordmeaning in context, recognizing correct word forms (spelling), and practicing words in context, can contribute to English vocabulary learning among L2 beginning learners.  This dissertation has been divided into seven chapters. In the first chapter, an introduction to the background that motivates this Ph.D. study and an overall picture of the study are presented. Chapter 2 deals with the theoretical background that drives this Ph.D. study, in which related literature is reviewed. In Chapter3, main research questions are raised, and the methodology employed in this study is discussed. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 present the three experiments carried out to address the research questions. The first experiment,reported in Chapter 4, aimed to investigate the effects of Comprehension Task (presence or absence) and Writing Task (presence or absence) on the recall of the forms of ten target English words. A 2×2×2 factorial design was employed in the first experiment with two between-subjects variables (comprehension and writing: presence or absence), and one within-subjects variable (time: immediate and delayed post-tests). Results indicated that the retention scores of the target words were highest in the Writing Group, which contradicted the original hypothesis: the Comprehension + Writing Group would have had the highest retention scores. This outcome suggested that follow-up experiments were needed to further examine this issue. Thus, the second experiment, reported in Chapter 5, was built on the first experiment retaining one of the independent variables (Writing Task) studied in Experiment 1, and further included one new independent variable (Spelling Task). Results showed that the Spelling + Writing Group outperformed the other three groups (i.e. the Comprehension Group, the Spelling Group, and the Writing Group), which seems to imply that L2 beginning learners might benefit from a combined practice ofL2 vocabulary in comprehending word meaning in context, recognizing correct word forms, and practicing words in context after receiving a reading input. The findings also indicated that further qualitativeresearch might help explain pupils' perceptions of the tasks, and shed some light on how they proceeded with the tasks. Therefore, the third experiment, reported in Chapter 6, was a small-scale replicationof the second experiment with a focus on collecting qualitative data viz. post-task interviews. Results were consistent with the learning outcomes found in Experiment 2. In addition, pupils' verbal reports wereable to provide more insights into learning process, strategies and perceptions regarding different task combinations. Finally, in Chapter 7, the main research findings are summarized. The conclusions, pedagogical implications as well as some suggestions for future research are also illustrated in this final chapter.

Jaar van publicatie:2012