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

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frequency levels were recorded as pretest results. The story The Golden Fleece was selected as the reading text since all the words in the story were classified into five levels according to Naiton’s word frequency categories and proved to be neither too difficult for beginners and nor effortless for advanced learners to read. Thirty words <strong>of</strong> various frequency levels and numbers <strong>of</strong> occurrences in the story were chosen as target words and a word definition match pretest was conducted to ensure that learners’ pre-reading vocabulary knowledge parallels with their general vocabulary knowledge (assessed in the Levels Test). The same vocabulary test distributed in the pre-test was given in the post-test two days after learners’ reading. Each learner’s pre and post tests were then compared to identify their word gain. It was found that word occurrence frequency played a more crucial role for students <strong>of</strong> lower vocabulary levels than those <strong>of</strong> higher vocabulary levels. The quantitative data determined frequency as a factor three to four times more important for beginners than it was for more advanced learners. In other words, weaker learners were more dependent on word frequency than advanced learners. The study further pointed out that future studies should take learner level into consideration when examining the frequency factor in incidental vocabulary learning. To summarize, the issue <strong>of</strong> the degree <strong>of</strong> exposures to word acquisition is left much to be explored, the puzzle could be further untangled if learners’ level, researchers’ concept <strong>of</strong> successful vocabulary learning, and purpose <strong>of</strong> vocabulary measurements are more clearly defined. 21
2.6. Measuring Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Because <strong>of</strong> the incremental nature in vocabulary learning, for words to be fully acquired by a learner after encountering it in merely several texts is clearly impossible. It would be more realistic to assume that learners acquire a degree <strong>of</strong> partial knowledge <strong>of</strong> a target word after several exposure opportunities. Receptive and productive types <strong>of</strong> knowledge <strong>of</strong> a word therefore have commonly been used to describe the degree <strong>of</strong> learners’ word knowledge (Nation, 2001; Read, 2000). Receptive knowledge in vocabulary involves recognizing the form <strong>of</strong> a word while reading or listening and retrieving its meaning from mental lexicon; on the other hand, productive vocabulary knowledge involves expressing a message through speaking and writing and producing the appropriate word form appropriately in context. It is generally agreed that learner’s vocabulary knowledge can be located in a receptive to productive continuum. Generally speaking, learners will first recognize a word’s form, pronunciation, and basic meanings, then with further experiences or practices, their word knowledge will move along the continuum and finally reach the point <strong>of</strong> able to use these words freely in productive mode. From this sense, receptive and productive types <strong>of</strong> word knowledge are not two separate word systems in learners’ lexicon, but rather one lexical store with receptive to productive continuum <strong>of</strong> different words. However, most available test measures <strong>of</strong>ten aim at measuring either receptive or productive vocabulary respectively. If receptive and productive vocabularies are not two distinct and dichotomous systems, then test measures that concentrate merely on measuring either learners’ receptive or productive word knowledge would inevitably overlook the diverse levels in word learning. In previous literature exploring the issue <strong>of</strong> required amount <strong>of</strong> exposure for word acquisition, test measures such as checklist, self developed multiple-choice questions, definition matching, clozes, 22
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 and 28: Besides the above potential limitat
Page 29: immediately after reading, one week
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) (
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Appendix P Results of</stro
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