Effects of Graded Texts on EFL College Students' Incidental ...

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lead to better vocabulary acquisition. 20 related texts from four running stories were selected from four newspapers for analyses. In accordance to the vocabulary knowledge <strong>of</strong> most high school graduates, which is a 2000 word level, words outside this 2000 word level were considered as new words that learners have to learn in the process <strong>of</strong> reading newspapers. New words in each text were calculated in terms <strong>of</strong> target word repetition for both running stories and unrelated stories. In the examined 4 running stories, 17 <strong>of</strong> the 62 new word families (27%) occurred more than once while in unrelated texts, only 14 <strong>of</strong> the 73 new word families (19%) occurred twice or more. Compared with unrelated stories, texts in running stories were able to reduce the density <strong>of</strong> target word families and also provide more repetitions <strong>of</strong> words outside <strong>of</strong> 2000 words level. If some degree <strong>of</strong> word knowledge can be acquired through only one encounter <strong>of</strong> words, then it was estimated that when learners have proceeded into the second text in the running stories they would be able to reach about 94% to 95% lexical coverage, a percentage high enough for reading comprehension. With the help <strong>of</strong> computer tools and analyses, large numbers <strong>of</strong> comprehensible texts could be sequenced for readers’ needs. Using a self-developed computer program, TextLadder, Ghadirian (2003) was able to conduct precise statistical analyses as the basis for sequencing and arranging large amount <strong>of</strong> reading texts. TextLadder was designed to attend to the problem <strong>of</strong> bringing foreign language learners with limited vocabulary knowledge to the point where learners are able to comprehend authentic texts in a specific genre. Word lists were included in the program as a way to enhance vocabulary acquisition environments. In order to achieve comprehensibility, Ghardirian first determined a set <strong>of</strong> word lists which accounted for 95% <strong>of</strong> the running words in target texts, a percentage suggested by Laufer (1989) for adequate reading comprehension. Considering the vocabulary level and the needs <strong>of</strong> the target learners which are learners <strong>of</strong> academic purposes, the 15
words in this set <strong>of</strong> word lists were then grouped into two subsets, either a familiar word list or an unfamiliar word list. The familiar word list consisted <strong>of</strong> high frequency elementary words that learners have supposedly acquired before having been exposed to this reading program. On the other hand, the unfamiliar word list was comprised <strong>of</strong> lower frequency words that learners would be expected to acquire in the process <strong>of</strong> reading texts. After the selection and grouping <strong>of</strong> word lists by the researcher, Textladder then take over to operate the following processes. First, it compared the running words in each text to the word lists (which consisted <strong>of</strong> two subsets, the familiar and the unfamiliar word list) and trimmed <strong>of</strong>f the ones that do not meet 95% requirement. Second, it automatically sequenced the remaining texts by matching the words in the texts to both subsets <strong>of</strong> word lists, the familiar word list and the unfamiliar word list. The one text with the highest number <strong>of</strong> familiar words and the least number <strong>of</strong> unfamiliar words was placed as the first on the reading list. Third, the unfamiliar target words in the first text would be added to the familiar word list for TextLadder to run the process once again to sort out the next text that contains a maximum number <strong>of</strong> familiar words and a least number <strong>of</strong> new unfamiliar words. The sequence therefore created an order for reading texts that enabled incremental vocabulary acquisition for learners. Moreover, TextLadder kept in track the number <strong>of</strong> occurrences for each word. A list <strong>of</strong> words which appeared under five times will be recorded for instructors’ information. By exposing a small amount <strong>of</strong> target words within meaningful texts to learners, words in the unfamiliar word list will eventually be acquired by learners after they have finished all the texts in TextLadder in order. In order to test whether TextLadder could perform the aimed function <strong>of</strong> bridging the gap between learners’ limited vocabulary and a list <strong>of</strong> vocabulary consisting <strong>of</strong> words from a target genre, 16
Page 1 and 2: 國立清華大學碩士論文英
Page 3 and 4: Abstract Incidental vocabulary lear
Page 5 and 6: implicit learning for learners’ q
Page 7 and 8: 4.3. Discussion 70 4.3.1. The Feasi
Page 9 and 10: List of Figure Fig
Page 11 and 12: competence (Elley, 1991; Hafiz & Tu
Page 13 and 14: EFL classes, and determining the am
Page 15 and 16: consultation for second language le
Page 17 and 18: vastly reinforced with the ease and
Page 19 and 20: learning to occur. 2. Word meaning
Page 21 and 22: inging learners who are competent <
Page 23: (1993) suggested a required 5,000 w
Page 27 and 28: Besides the above potential limitat
Page 29 and 30: immediately after reading, one week
Page 31 and 32: 2.6. Measuring Incidental Vocabular
Page 33 and 34: 2.7. Summary We incorporated the em
Page 35 and 36: 3.1. Overview Chapter Three METHODO
Page 37 and 38: The Sinorama magazine is dedicated
Page 39 and 40: Word List (鄭恆雄, 2002; 2003),
Page 41 and 42: for the cut off po
Page 43 and 44: TextLadder; instead, our program pu
Page 45 and 46: target words within each text. Afte
Page 47 and 48: Table 3.2 Target word rate and targ
Page 49 and 50: 7. into the Exposed Word List Selec
Page 51 and 52: Table 3. 5. A comparison between Gh
Page 53 and 54: 3.3.4 Glossing of
Page 55 and 56: participants were required put a ch
Page 57 and 58: score of 2. If a t
Page 59 and 60: Table 3.9 Instruments used in the s
Page 61 and 62: had finished all sixteen texts. The
Page 63 and 64: technical feasibility of</s
Page 65 and 66: a result, valid subjects dropped fr
Page 67 and 68: Table 4.2 Learners’ perspectives
Page 69 and 70: estimation of lear
Page 71 and 72: words from known words. The provisi
Page 73 and 74: vocabulary level, on the other hand
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4.2.4 The results of</stron
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Table 4.11 shows learners’ respon
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4.3 Discussion 4.3.1. The feasibili
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direct phonetic translations <stron
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on gloss suggested that they still
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measurement tool for its function <
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learners’ processing of</
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not be untangled without considerin
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5.1. Overview Chapter Five Conclusi
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with the same group of</str
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also accelerate sequencing time wit
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esponsible for connecting the two b
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REFERENCES Berman, R.A. (1984 ). Sy
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Hulstijn, J. H., Hollander, M., & G
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Rationale for Pedagogy (pp. 174-200
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第 1-6 題電腦方面 Appendix A
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Student Post□ 其他□__________
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26. optimistic 27. consumption 28.
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1. entrepreneur: VI. 我對這個
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21.calligraphy: I. 我對這個字
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41.insufficient: I. 我對這個字
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3 points entrepreneur: (item three
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Appendix F The In-class Evaluation
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Appendix H The Introductory Page on
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Appendix J A Search Example <strong
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Appendix L Student Reading Process
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第 1-6 題電腦方面 Appendix N
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13(2). 英文雜誌 41.7% (28/67) (
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Appendix P Results of</stro
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