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

learners’ processing <strong>of</strong> texts was presumably meaning-based. Hence, only when
word meaning is not available at the time <strong>of</strong> use will learners take into account
surrounding contexts <strong>of</strong> target words and deeper analyses <strong>of</strong> target words contextual
cues be processed. As was indicated by Wesche and Paribakht (2000), in the context
<strong>of</strong> extensive reading “once the immediate communicative need has been met, the
learner does not undertake future mental processing <strong>of</strong> the word” (p. 197). The gloss
originally incorporated for ensuring correct target word meaning, though suggested by
previous studies as being beneficial to word learning, attenuated the possibility <strong>of</strong>
learners’ deeper mental processing.
A dilemma was posed here in that preciseness <strong>of</strong> word meaning and depth <strong>of</strong>
processing were both desired. It could be that more exposure along the reading
process might be able to mend learners’ superficial acquisitions at initial stages.
However, as was found in the current study, the amount <strong>of</strong> exposure for receptive and
productive knowledge should be greater than at least 15 times in an extensive reading
context. Whether learners have ample enough opportunities for such an amount <strong>of</strong>
encounter and whether the vocabulary pay<strong>of</strong>f in extensive reading is suitable in EFL
context are still in question. Thus, a more promising alternative for quality
vocabulary acquisition might be to use a combination <strong>of</strong> explicit vocabulary
instruction and implicit extensive reading. Positive evidence was found for the use
<strong>of</strong> explicit vocabulary instruction in conjunction with extensive reading (Paribakht
and Weshche, 1997; Quan, 1996), indicating the benefits <strong>of</strong> certain degree <strong>of</strong> teacher
intervention in second language vocabulary teaching.
Nation (1990) proposed that the intrinsic difficulty <strong>of</strong> words could be a
possibility underlying the ease <strong>of</strong> word acquisition. The results in the current study
seem to demonstrate such effect with learners needing more than an amount <strong>of</strong> 15
exposure on the ten target words mainly found in the most difficult band <strong>of</strong> the
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