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

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<strong>of</strong>fered Freshmen English course both centered around intensive reading <strong>of</strong> texts within explicit teaching environments. 3.3. The Designing <strong>of</strong> an On-line Extensive Reading Syllabus We programmed our on-line extensive reading syllabus based on Ghadirian’s (2003) work <strong>of</strong> the sequencing procedures and added some improvements by utilizing other tools. The first step <strong>of</strong> constructing an on-line syllabus was to find a large number <strong>of</strong> suitable reading texts and to identify a set <strong>of</strong> useful word list tailored for our Taiwanese college learners. Moreover, the texts should contain a high proportion <strong>of</strong> words in the word list so as to assure frequency <strong>of</strong> exposure <strong>of</strong> words and to make vocabulary learning more efficient through each text that learners have read. In other words, words in the word lists should be used frequently in reading texts for learners to repetitively encounter them while reading. 3.3.1 The Reading Material: the Sinorama Magazine Coady (1997) proposed that providing comprehensible input as a principal factor encouraging learners to read. Research <strong>of</strong> the L2 reading process attributed comprehension to three sources: (a) conceptual abilities, which is readers’ intellectual capacity; (b) background knowledge, what the reader knows about the reading topic, and (c) process strategies, readers’ strategies to comprehension such as knowledge <strong>of</strong> syntactic information, lexical meaning, and contextual meaning (Nagy, 1997). Therefore, to achieve comprehension entails overcoming reading difficulties originated in these three aspects. With comprehensive vocabulary exposure controlled by word lists in our program, reading texts which are conceptually suitable and familiar to readers’ background knowledge would supposedly reduce readers’ possible reading difficulties to the least. Accordingly, texts from the Sinorama magazine, published by Sinorama Magazine, were chosen in this study. 27
The Sinorama magazine is dedicated to introducing Taiwan to the world. Articles in Sinorama are authentic materials in English, written for the purpose <strong>of</strong> presenting a true picture <strong>of</strong> Taiwan on the international scene. Through special in-depth reportage on Taiwan <strong>of</strong> all aspects, readers are hoped to gain a better knowledge and understanding <strong>of</strong> Taiwan. Its articles include major developments and issues in Taiwan over recent years in such areas as politics, economics, arts, society, culture, ecology and the environment. For readers in this study, Sinorama articles possess the advantage <strong>of</strong> first, <strong>of</strong>fering background-familiar reading texts and second, providing chances <strong>of</strong> learning from authentic materials related to home culture, which is rare since most reading materials <strong>of</strong>ten are imported, aim at introducing foreign culture <strong>of</strong> English-speaking countries. In other words, instruction or aid for further culture knowledge is not an additional demand with texts from Sinorama and that reading difficulties generated from unfamiliarity <strong>of</strong> background knowledge will be minimized. Moreover, for learners to read extensively, selecting materials that interest readers is also another major factor. A wide variety <strong>of</strong> texts providing various topics and themes would more likely enhance readers’ motivation for English learning. With topics ranging from politics, economics, arts, society, culture, ecology, sports, entertainment and environment, texts in Sinorama possess this motivating feature. As a result, 5008 reading texts from issues <strong>of</strong> the Sinorama magazine in 1989 to 2001 were selected for analyses and sequencing. 28
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 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: 3.1. Overview Chapter Three METHODO
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
Page 81 and 82: direct phonetic translations <stron
Page 83 and 84: on gloss suggested that they still
Page 85 and 86: measurement tool for its function <
Page 87 and 88:
learners’ processing of</
Page 89 and 90:
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
Page 113 and 114:
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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