Abstract

In recent years, focus of studies that are relevant to incidental vocabulary acquisition and glosses has been shifted from whether glosses can facilitate incidental vocabulary acquisition to which glossing form is the most effective to incidental vocabulary acquisition. But so far, there is no consistent conclusion as regards to the effects of different glossing languages on incidental vocabulary acquisition. 

This study aims to compare the effects of Chinese glosses, English glosses and Chinese plus English glosses on non-English majors’ incidental vocabulary acquisition and vocabulary retention through an experiment. The subjects are 60 non-English major sophomores from different schools in Hangzhou Normal University. They are divided into 4 groups, namely no gloss group, Chinese glossing group, English glossing group and Chinese plus English glossing group. All subjects are given the same amount of time to read a 460-word English text and finish the reading comprehension test. Then they receive an immediate vocabulary knowledge test after that and a delayed vocabulary test and a questionnaire one week later. 

SPSS 19.0 is adopted in this study for data analysis and the results are analyzed. The immediate vocabulary test indicates that bilingual glossing is a little more effective to non-English majors’ incidental vocabulary acquisition, but there is no significant difference among three glossing forms. The delayed vocabulary test indicates that Chinese glossing is the most effective to vocabulary retention, while English glossing is the least. 

Keywords: forms of glosses; incidental vocabulary acquisition; reading

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1.Introduction.1

1.1Research Background1

1.2Purpose and Significance of the Research1

2.Literature Review3

2.1Definition of Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition3

2.2Major Approaches to the Study of Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition.3

3.Methodology.6

3.1Research Questions.6

3.2Subjects.6

3.3Materials6

3.3.1 Reading Materials.6

3.3.2 Target Words.7

3.4Instruments .8

3.4.1 Reading Comprehension Test.8

3.4.2 Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) 8

3.4.3 Questionnaire .8

3.5Procedures.9

4.Results and Discussion11

4.1Analysis about the Questionnaire11

4.2Analysis about the Immediate Vocabulary Test12

4.3Analysis about the Delayed Vocabulary Test14

5.Conclusion 18

References20