Effects of Exposure Frequency and Contextual Situations of a Word on Incidental Learning of Vocabulary

• Main Authors: Huang, Lo-li, 黃樓莉
• Other Authors: Lin, Chih-cheng
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/76291121054190904543

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系 === 95 === Incidental vocabulary learning, though indispensable to vocabulary growth, has created many unresolved areas for vocabulary research. Exposure frequency and contextual situations are two that draw attention but have seldom been investigated in one single study, especially in an EFL setting. Therefore, the study investigates effects of the two factors on EFL students’ vocabulary acquisition. Two intact freshman classes from a senior high school in northern Taiwan participated in the study and read ten sets of passages with three target words occurring three times, another three four times, another three five times and the other three six times in two versions. One class read the version containing synonyms or definitions as explicit contextual clues for the target words; the other class read the version with inferential contextual clues either in cause-effect or in contrast relationships with the target words. The results were analyzed across students’ performances on the pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest with exposure frequency as a within-subject factor and contextual situations as a between-subject factor. The findings showed that (a) senior high school students could learn vocabulary incidentally from reading, (b) more exposures tended to yield better vocabulary growth and words encountered six times contributed to a significant increase of word knowledge, (c) passages with inferential contextual clues, which required more mental effort to derive word meanings, facilitated vocabulary learning more, and (d) an interrelationship might exist between exposure frequency and contextual situations in facilitating incidental vocabulary learning. Therefore, the study concludes that teachers should have students experience incidental word learning in class and that textbook developers should be aware of how exposure frequency and contextual situations influence learners’ vocabulary acquisition.