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

5.1. Overview
Chapter Five
Conclusion
This study originated from an exploratory issue <strong>of</strong> what happens to the English
teaching process when we incorporate an online extensive reading syllabus for
vocabulary acquisition purposes. The online extensive reading syllabus was
developed by integrating word lists and quantitative corpus analyses using word
frequency computer programs. With four word lists, The General Service Word List,
the Senior High Student’s Word List in Taiwan, the University Word List, and a high
frequent word list out <strong>of</strong> the original 5008 articles <strong>of</strong> a parallel corpus, Sinorama, the
syllabus graded articles based on filtering texts according to vocabulary difficulty.
Easier texts were sequenced first to provide texts with i+1 and repetitive exposure <strong>of</strong>
target words was ensured to induce quality incidental vocabulary acquisition. The
syllabus was furthermore enhanced with gloss, a bilingual concordancer, and
highlights <strong>of</strong> target words. Thirty-eight English-as-a-foreign-language college
freshmen learners were recruited to read 16 sequenced texts using the online extensive
reading syllabus within a period <strong>of</strong> 12 weeks. A pretest, a posttest, a background
questionnaire, an online evaluation questionnaire, and an in-class evaluation
questionnaire were used as instruments for data collection. In addition to feasibility,
our second concern is to which extent do learners liked the online extensive reading
syllabus. Finally, the study takes an interest in exploring the issue <strong>of</strong> the amount <strong>of</strong>
exposure required for successful receptive and productive incidental vocabulary
acquisition while reading extensively.
The results <strong>of</strong> the study indicate that it is both technically and pedagogically
feasible to incorporate an online extensive reading syllabus into English learning at
82