Author(s)

Tong Shuang

Corresponding Author

Tong Shuang

Abstract

The present study aims at exploring the effects of different glosses and involvement loads on incidental vocabulary acquisition among non-English majors. It investigates whether glosses and involvement load would have an effect on the learners' immediate word gain and promote their word knowledge retention. The experiment chooses 96 non-English freshmen at a university in Si Chuan Province. Results indicate that1) the multiple-choice glosses has a better effect on incidental vocabulary acquisition and retention than the single glosses; 2) high involvement loads can contribute to better acquisition and retention; 3)different glosses and involvement loads exert different influences on vocabulary acquisition and retention. Translation task with multiple-choice glosses is the most effective, and reading comprehension task with single glosses is the worst.

Keywords

Incidental vocabulary acquisition, Glosses, Involvement load.