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

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created several ideal incidental vocabulary acquisition conditions within extensive reading environments using computer tools. Nevertheless, enhancements could be made by providing more frequent exposure <strong>of</strong> target words to further reduce learners’ vocabulary load, and to <strong>of</strong>fer empirical evidence <strong>of</strong> effective vocabulary learning through such text sequencing. 2.5. Amount <strong>of</strong> Exposure to a Word and Successful Vocabulary Acquisition Though it was persistently emphasized that enough exposure <strong>of</strong> a word is necessary for an incremental learning process in which various features <strong>of</strong> words could be picked up from the contexts, previous studies have, in fact, not been able to reach an agreement on how much exposure is required for successful incidental vocabulary acquisition. Exposure from only once to twenty times has been suggested by different researchers. By inserting pseudo words in texts, Saragi, Nation, and Meister (1978) proposed a number <strong>of</strong> ten exposures for L1 learners to fully acquire new words. A probability <strong>of</strong> learning a word from context after only one exposure is between .10 to .15 as estimated by Nagy, Herman, and Anderson (1985). An even lower probability, .05, which is about an exposure amount <strong>of</strong> twenty times, was found in their follow-up study (Nagy, et al., 1987). Nation (1990) reviewed previous studies related to exposures required for word acquisition and concluded that a range from five to sixteen exposures may be needed. Rott (1999) recruited 95 learners <strong>of</strong> German as a second language and assigned them into a control and an experimental group. Each group was further divided into three subgroups based on numbers <strong>of</strong> exposure to unfamiliar words which appeared two, four, or six times during reading. Learners read six passages containing six unfamiliar words each week either for two weeks, four weeks, and six weeks. A multiple-choice vocabulary test and a vocabulary definition test were delivered 19
immediately after reading, one week after reading, and one month after reading, aiming to measure learners’ productive and receptive gain and word retention. The results indicated that only two encounters with unfamiliar words during reading can positively affect learners’ vocabulary growth. Yet, learners with six exposures did significantly better on both immediate, delayed receptive and productive vocabulary tests whereas two and four exposures resulted in a small difference. The findings first suggested that long term effect on adult L2 vocabulary growth during reading can be guaranteed under the condition that texts are sufficiently rich for building vocabulary knowledge. Moreover, though two exposures during reading already result in word knowledge gain, lexical growth is more likely to be speeded up if the exposure is increased to six encounters. The major reason leading to these disparate results with measuring encounters is the incremental nature <strong>of</strong> word learning process. A single encounter with a word in context could already result in some amount <strong>of</strong> learning, while 50 exposures will still not enable learners to build the complete and complex word knowledge needed for productive use. As Huckin and Coady (1999) stressed “word-learning outcomes can range over continua <strong>of</strong> lexical knowledge and use competencies from partial recognition knowledge to precise knowledge and productive use capability” (p. 185). In other words, researchers’ concepts <strong>of</strong> successful acquisition were different, and thus, vocabulary learning was measured in different ways. The other possibility involved in measuring word encounter frequency could be that different degree <strong>of</strong> exposure is needed by different learners (Zahar, et al., 2001). Zahar, Cobb, and Spada (2001) investigated the issue by recruiting 144 ESL learners coming from a variety <strong>of</strong> first language backgrounds at five pr<strong>of</strong>iciency levels ranging from beginners to bilinguals. Each student’s performance on Nation’s (1990) Vocabulary Levels Test involving matching words to brief definitions at five 20
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 and 24: (1993) suggested a required 5,000 w
Page 25 and 26: words in this set of</stron
Page 27: Besides the above potential limitat
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
Page 75 and 76: 4.2.4 The results of</stron
Page 77 and 78: Table 4.11 shows learners’ respon
Page 79 and 80:
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) (
Page 131 and 132:
Appendix P Results of</stro
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