On Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition in Senior English Reading Teaching

【摘 要】詞匯習(xí)得是二語(yǔ)的關(guān)鍵而且也是重要任務(wù)。語(yǔ)言的四種技能：即聽(tīng)、說(shuō)、讀、寫(xiě)，而詞匯掌握的多少又直接影響到閱讀。近年來(lái)，國(guó)內(nèi)外對(duì)語(yǔ)言習(xí)得有很多的研究。然而，相對(duì)外國(guó)的研究而言，國(guó)內(nèi)的研究是極少的，且大部分都是研究大學(xué)的閱讀，極少研究高中二語(yǔ)習(xí)得，因此，本文章旨在研究探討當(dāng)前高中生二語(yǔ)習(xí)得存在的問(wèn)題及解決的方法。

【關(guān)鍵詞】附帶語(yǔ)言習(xí)得 閱讀習(xí)慣 閱讀教學(xué)

【中圖分類(lèi)號(hào)】G642 【文獻(xiàn)標(biāo)識(shí)碼】A 【文章編號(hào)】1674－4810（2011）12－0015－02

Ⅰ Introduction

The study of vocabulary is at the heart of language teaching in terms of organization of syllabuses， the evaluation of learner performance， and the provision of acquiring resources （Candlin， 1988）.Moreover， vocabulary acquisition is important to students’ language skills: reading， writing， and listening， especially， reading. Without enough vocabulary， listening， reading and writing are inefficient. Besides， “without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”（Wilson， 1986）.Therefore， vocabulary is essential to language acquisition.

Language teachers and researchers have done numerous theoretical thinking and empirical investigations to find out how words can be best learned. Since the early 1980s， a number of researchers， such as Gibson， Long who focused on vocabulary acquisition of native speakers of English have found that a large proportion of words are neither taught by parents or teachers， nor learned in any formal way. The most reasonable explanation for this is that native speakers acquire words “incidentally” as they encounter them in the natural context. On these practical bases， it claims that incidental vocabulary learning is the learning of new words as a by－product of a meaning－focused communicative

activity， such as reading， listening and interaction.

Ⅱ Difficulty of the Reading

1．Choice of Reading Materials

As the research studied， senior students choose a wide range of reading materials. For example: newspaper， magazine， novel， materials for examination， multiple choice. All types of materials are involved. However， the proportion is uneven. A majority of students choose materials for examination as reading materials， few students choose novels as reading materials. From the proportion of the multiple－choice， we can infer that nearly half of the students read more than one type of the reading materials.

Because of the pressure of examination， senior students mainly choose materials for examination as reading materials. With the development of the newspapers made especially for high school students， newspaper becomes an important reading material for students. Foreign language novels are not so popular among senior students. It is true that novel， a literature that young people are easy to accept， can not only enable students to expose to the most authentic language， but also allows students to understand the foreign culture. It is an important means of improving English proficiency. However， students find it difficult to read novels due to some factors， such as limited vocabulary size， lack of knowledge of foreign culture and shortage of time.

As to the selection criteria， more than half of the students choose reading materials based on interest. Examination， information and classic are also important factors.

2．Difficulty of the Reading Materials

As we know most of the students choose materials of moderate difficulty. Few students choose materials of partial difficulty and no difficulty.

In view of incidental vocabulary acquisition， the result of acquisition is best when the difficulty level of the article is slightly higher that the current reading level of the readers， that is krashen’s (1989) comprehensive input“i+1”. Therefore， choosing articles of slight will be more helpful to students’ vocabulary acquisition. Students should be encouraged to reading some articles of right level of difficulty.

3．Reading Habits

As we know， only a few students read more than one hour everyday. Most of the students read less that half an hour everyday.

Good reading habit is helpful to vocabulary acquisition. Very few students insist on reading English newspaper everyday. With the popularity of English newspapers and magazines， reading English newspapers and magazines is not only conducive to incidental vocabulary acquisition but brings students an overall English proficiency as well.

Ⅲ Suggestions For Helping Students Improve Reading

1．Selecting Appropriate Reading Materials

When applying incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading， teachers could carefully choose proper reading materials. The selection procedure should conform to Krashen’s input hypothesis and his optimal input. Reading materials should be “adequate comprehensible input”， and take the following criteria into consideration: the selected materials should be interesting， and be in sufficient quantity.

2．Helping Students Cultivate Good Reading Habits

Help learners cultivate good reading habits in order to promote their IVL gains and retentions. Teachers should encourage guessing and help learners develop the strategies of guessing meanings of unknown words from context. It is suggested that learners， especially intermediate and advanced learners， should infer meanings first when encountering new words during reading and then consult dictionary or look at the marginal glosses for exact meanings.

3．Fostering Students’ Reading Interests

We know that most students choose reading materials that they are interested in. Through reading， they can find pleasure and feel relaxed. At that moment， they are usually highly motivated and they will usually pay attention to most of the words so as to get the information they want. As is known to all， highly motivated students read quite independently. On the contrary， if students find no interest in the reading material， it will be very hard or sometimes even impossible for them to continue reading， no speaking of finishing reading and getting some information. Therefore， teachers should make the texts interesting enough to arouse their interests， otherwise they will not be willing to devote the mental effort to unfamiliar words.

Ⅳ Conclusion

Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition through reading is an important way of learning vocabulary. And extensive reading is the basis of vocabulary learning， while interest is the key to vocabulary acquisition. These two elements influence the result of vocabulary acquisition. Therefore， the author proposes some suggestions to the existing problems， such as， selecting appropriate reading materials， helping students cultivate good reading habits， integrating incidental and intentional learning together， fostering students’ reading interests in the hope of improving senior students’ incidental vocabulary acquisition in reading， enhancing students’ vocabulary learning and reading ability and contributing to practical vocabulary teaching.

References

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［2］Nagy， W. E. Herman， P. A. Anderson， R. C. Learning words from context［J］. Reading Research Quarterly20 （1985）:233～253

［3］Paribakht， T. S Wesche， M. Vocabulary enhancement activities and reading for meaning in second language vocabulary acquisition［A］. In: Coady， J. Huckin， T （eds） Second Language Vocabulary: a rationale for pedagogy［C］. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press， 1997

［4］蓋淑華.詞匯附帶習(xí)得研究概述［J］.解放軍外國(guó)語(yǔ)學(xué)院學(xué)報(bào)，2003（2）

［5］蓋淑華.英語(yǔ)專(zhuān)業(yè)學(xué)生詞匯附帶習(xí)得實(shí)證研究［J］.外語(yǔ)教學(xué)與研究，2003（4）

〔責(zé)任編輯：陳晨〕