The Impact of Task-type Based Vocabulary Instruction on Incidental Word Retention

Elaheh Touti, Roohollah Maleki

Abstract


Having a good knowledge of vocabulary is a passport to helpful communication. Both theoretical and empirical investigations in the area of L2 incidental vocabulary were taken into account through executing a study comparing the impacts of two types of lexically-oriented tasks at text level (i.e. gap-fill & writing) on the extent of EFL learners’ recollection of newly-encountered words. Pursuing this purpose, 64 Iranian EFL learners at intermediate level were selected and then assigned into two experimental groups labelled fill-in group and writing group. This study includes a research question addressing “do lexically-oriented tasks at text level provide better incidental vocabulary recall than gap-fill tasks do? This study, due to the absence of any control group, applied a quasi-experimental design. Statistically speaking, both quantitative and qualitative data were provided. This study used a t-test to compare the mean scores of the two groups. The writing group finally benefited from the outcomes of the study due to the innate mental investment aroused by being engaged in the writing task. The contingency of task engagement rests on the three contributive components (need, search, and evaluation) which could yield the conducive involvement.


Keywords


task-type; incidental words; word-focused tasks; retention rate

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0606.15

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