Research on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition from Movies 英语毕业论文.doc

Research on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition from Movies. Introduction A. Vocabulary AcquisitionVocabulary is the building block of language skills， it plays a important role in learning a foreign language. Vocabulary is the building material of a language. A building can not be constructed without bricks, so a language is unconceivable without vocabulary. Just as Wilkins comments: "While without grammar very little can be conveyed, without Vocabulary nothing can be conveyed" (cited in Wang, 2006).In language learning，vocabulary learning has always been the most challenging part. The study on vocabulary learning may shed light on understanding of vocabulary proficiency of different learners and may help to smooth the learning process. Researchers home and abroad have done considerable work in this field. In china, the English language teaching profession also fully realizes the great importance of vocabulary learning alongside the teaching and learning of grammar. What many learners concern about is how to remove the impediment of vocabulary in the acquisition of the target language. For instance, intermediate and advanced learners may watch English movies just for pleasure or may use the foreign language to achieve a particular goal，and they may "pick up" certain words in the process of the activity. This method of "picking up" words was named incidental vocabulary learning for the acquisition of the words is the result of other activities.Intentional vocabulary learning, or direct vocabulary learning is advocated in early history of EFL. It contains such learning strategies as semantic mapping, keyword method, paired-associate lists etc.Incidental vocabulary acquisition is a new concept in recent 20 years. The term of "incidental vocabulary acquisition" was first advocated by Nagy, Herman and Anderson in 1985, referring to the learning without the intent to learn based on their observation of children's L1 vocabulary expansion. B. English and English moviesEnglish is one of the worlds most widely used languages. As a second language, English is often necessary for business, education, information and other activities in a great many countries such as India, Pakistan and so on. At international sports meets, at meetings of scientists from different countries and at talks of writers and artists from the corners of the earth, English is mostly used. English has in fact become the language of international cooperation in science and technology.Well, English movie is a proficiency way for the students to learn both English culture and vocabulary. That the movie combines the knowledge with the amusement is more acceptable than other approaches. Nowadays, with the development of the modern technology, it seems more convenient for us to make use of the precious resources: movie. Especially for the students, they can have a good opportunity to care about the local English environment. Most of the movies now have the subtitles, this provide a lot of useful sentences and words for us. Above all, English movies are playing a more and more important role in the process of our English learning. . Theoretical Concepts Associated with Incidental Learning A. Intentional vocabulary learning vs. Incidental vocabulary acquisitionThe use of the terms incidental and intentional learning in psychological literature dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century. In operational terms, incidental and intentional learning can be distinguished by whether or not participants are told in advance that they will be tested immediately after the experiment. But theoretically, the distinction between incidental learning and intentional learning has become difficult to maintain. As vocabulary learning is concerned, incidental vocabulary learning refers to the learning of vocabulary as the result of any activity not explicitly geared to vocabulary learning, while intentional vocabulary learning refers to any activity aiming at committing lexical information into memory.Speaking of the term of "incidental vocabulary acquisition", Laufer and Hulstijn (2001) distinguished two types of incidental vocabulary acquisition: one is used in the experimental literature and with the strictly methodological meaning; the other has been given a more general, educational meaning. In incidental vocabulary leaning of the first type, learners are typically required to perform a task involving the processing of some information and do not intend to commit this information to memory. They are not told in advance that they will be tested afterwards on their recall of that information. In contrast, in intentional learning situation, learners intend to commit the processed information to memory and they are told in advance that their recall will be tested afterwards. The second type of the incidental learning in more general and educational situation refers to the learning without intent to learn when the learners' objective is to do something else. Most of the papers in the special collection of Incidental L2 Vocabulary Acquisition have taken incidental as something that is learned without the object of that learning being tied specific focus of attention in a classroom context, that is, incidental learning is the result of classroom focus. Incidental vocabulary acquisition refers to the process in which learners focus on comprehending meaning of reading and listening contexts rather than on the goal of learning new words while intentional vocabulary learning means the focal attention of vocabulary learning. Incidental vocabulary is learnt as the result of another activity without the intention to learn the words. B. The Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition TheoryBased on the research into how children acquire vocabulary in their native language, Nagy and Herman (1985) put forward the term "incidental vocabulary acquisition". They observed the size of an L1 child's vocabulary at different phrases in language development: an average 12th grader has a written English vocabulary of about 40,000 words while a typical 3rd grader's reading vocabulary is 5,000-10,000 content words. This means that a Ll child on average learns the meaning of around 3,000 written words per year, or 8-lO words per day. However, "Even the most ruthlessly systematic direct vocabulary instruction could neither account for a significant proportion of all the words children actually learn, nor can it cover a modest proportion of all the words they will encounter in school reading material" (Nagy& Anderson,1985). The huge gap indicates that the chief channel for a child to pick up new words is neither from the classroom instruction, nor by means of consulting the dictionary, but through extensive reading, taking part in natural conversation, listening to radios, and watching films and TV programs etc. They find that when people learn their mother tongue, they can acquire fifteen words one day when they are two to seven years old. So they argue that direct instruction of vocabulary cannot possibly account for the vast growth of students' knowledge of vocabulary. Therefore, they advocate that teachers promote extensive reading because it can lead to greater vocabulary growth than any programs of explicit instruction alone ever can (Nagy & Herman, 1985). Nagy and Herman (1985) hold that teachers should encourage students to read. Following this same logic, it is argued that L2 learners will acquire many of their vocabulary knowledge through watching English movies rather than front instruction. The term "incidental vocabulary acquisition" is also subjected to different interpretations.Huckin and Coady (1999:182) stated that incidental vocabulary learning is "a byproduct, not the target, of the main cognitive activity, reading". Huckin and Coady indentify incidental vocabulary learning based on learners' purpose held during reading. Their view implies that incidental vocabulary learning is a kind of uncontrolled learning.Paribakht and Wesche (1999:196) pointed out thatResearch on both first and second language development supports the conclusion that most vocabulary learning occurs naturally when the learners attempts to understand new words they hear or read in context. Such learning has been called "incidental" because it occurs as the learners are focused on something other than word learning itself.Dike Nation, Paribakht and Wesche explain incidental vocabulary learning in terms of learners' main attention during reading.Schimidt claimed thatThe term of incidental vocabulary learning has been given a more general, educational meaning, referring to the learning without an intent to learn, or as the learning of one thing, e.g., vocabulary, when the learner's primary objective is to do something else, e.g. to communicate (cited in Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001:10)Like Huckin and Coady, Schimidt stresses the role of learners' present purpose in identifying incidental vocabulary learning. C. Krashen's Input HypothesisEllis uses input to refer to the language that is addressed to the L2 learner either by a native speaker or by another L2 learner. It is a obvious phenomenon that if L2 acquisition to take place, the learner need to have access to the input in the target language. No learning will occur without input. Yet to what extent input contributes to language development as compared with our internal mechanisms remains largely inconclusive. lKrashen's input hypothesis (Krashen 1981:1985; 1989) makes the following claims:1. Learners progress along the natural order by understanding input that contains structures a little bit beyond their current level of competence.2. Although comprehensible input is necessary for acquisition to take place, it is not sufficient, as learners also need to be affectively disposed to let in' the input they comprehend.3. Input becomes comprehensible as a result of simplification and with the help of contextual and extra linguistic clues; fine-tuning' (i.e. ensuring that learners receive input rich in the specific linguistic property they are due to acquire next) is not necessary.4. Speaking is the result of acquisition, not its cause; learner production does not contribute directly to acquisition.Although the input hypothesis is followed by criticism, it is still one of the most influential hypotheses to explain incidental vocabulary acquisition. Krashen, Nagy and Hermarn all have the idea that students should be provided with a lot of reading materials they are interested in instead of examination.The present study investigates the incidental vocabulary acquisition during watching English movie and English cartoon. Both of the two movies chosen in the present study do not have too many new words, and it is a little above students' English level, so they can be treated as comprehensible input.D. Interaction Hypothesis.The last but not the least one is the "Interaction Hypothesis" put forward by Long in the 1980s, Long conducted a study which gave rise to what is known as the Interaction Hypothesis not long after the input hypothesis was made known. In an update version of the Interaction Hypothesis, Long emphasizes the facilitative effect of negotiation for meaning in linking the features of input or linguistic environment with the internal learner capacities since the learner's current L2 knowledge and built-in acquisition processes influence learning. Long differs from Krashen primarily with regard to the third claim of Krashen. While acknowledging that simplified input and context can play a role in making input comprehensible, Long stresses the importance of the interactional modifications that occur in negotiating meaning when a communication problem arises. In other words, the argument of Long is that interactive input is more important than non-interactive input.E .Research on Incidental Vocabulary AcquisitionSo far, we have talked about three main hypotheses on incidental vocabulary acquisition. In this section, we will review some empirical studies on incidental vocabulary learning.The fact that most vocabulary is learned incidentally has been evidenced for both first and second language learning. Many studies have been carried out to answer the important questions concerned with incidental vocabulary acquisition through extensive reading. Compared with the abundant research of incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading, research about incidental vocabulary acquisition through other ways is quite limited.Llley (1989) has done an experiment on the incidental vocabulary acquisition through listening stories (cited in Long, 2003). And Krashen and Duppy have done an experiment. Firstly, they have two groups of students, Group A as controlled group and Group B, then, Group A was asked to watch a piece of film for 5 minutes, at last, the two groups were asked to do the same word tests. The results indicated that the students who head watched the film had higher scores in word test than those who had not watch the film (cited in Long, 2003). Gibson's (1975) research was on the incidental vocabulary acquisition through speaking (cited in Long, 2003). Newton (1993) had done some research on the incidental vocabulary acquisition through discussing new words among students (cited in Long, 2003).With the development of multi-media technology, it provide a language-learning environment more interesting and motivating, as well create a rich and informative context conductive to acquisition.Compared with traditional reading context, audio-visual context appears to be more informative, reflecting the language and culture. It presents English as a language of intonation, and it brings learners' access to actual situation in which communication takes place. Moreover, parallel input of both audio and visual information stimulates the interaction between the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere, thus sustain memory. An Experiment about the Vocabulary AcquisitionA. The Questionsa. Can students acquire vocabulary knowledge through watching English movies with English subtitles on?b. If they can, is the vocabulary knowledge acquired retained for a longer period in memory (over the duration of a week)?c. Is students' English proficiency an affecting factor on their vocabulary acquisition?d. do students' movie watching tasks have different effects on their Vocabulary Acquisition?e. is the interaction affect students' English proficiency on vocabulary acquisition?B. The Schedule of the ExperimentThis study consists of an experiment, two tests and a survey. The investigators divide the students into three groups according to different purpose: A group to answer questions after watching the movie; B group to repeat the movie after watching it; C group to appreciate the movie. Two tests conclude test just after