AStudyofexplicitandimplicitEnhancementonL2VocabularyAcquisitioninSenorHighSchool

AStudyofexplicitandimplicitEnhancementonL2VocabularyAcquisitioninSenorHighSchool

郭晓云

郭晓云

Abstract:Vocabularyplaysaprominentroleinthesecondlanguageacquisitionofhighschoolstudents.ThenewCurriculumStandardrequiresthatstudentsshouldmasterasmanyas3300wordsaswellas400-500usefulexpressionsandfixedcollocation,whichbringsagreatchallengetoourvocabularyteachinginhighschools.ThepresentstudyaimsatinvestigatingdifferentialeffectsofexplicitandimplicitenhancementonL2vocabularyacquisitioninsenorhighschoolinordertohelpteachersrealizehowtoselectandapplythemostsuitablewaytothevocabularyinstructionsoastoimprovestudents’efficiencyinthevocabularyretention.BasedonthetheoryofdepthofinformationprocessingbyCraikandLockhart(1972),thethesismainlydealswith3mainaspectsjustasfollows:First,thedifferenteffectsofexplicitenhancementandimplicitenhancementonhighschoolstudents’vocabularyacquisition.Second,thedifferenteffectsofexplicitenhancementandimplicitenhancementonthereceptivevocabularyknowledgeandproductiveknowledge.Third,thedifferenteffectsonvocabularyretention,especiallyinshort-termmemoryandlong-termmemory.

Keywords:explicitandimplicitEnhancement;LearnerProficiency;L2VocabularyAcquisition

1.ImportanceofVocabularyTeachingandLearning

Theimportanceofvocabularyhasbeenwidelydiscussedbyresearchers(Decarrico,2001;Schmitt&Zimmerman,2002;Nation,2003)sincealongtimeago.Itisbelievedthatvocabularyisnotonlythecrucialsteptothetypicallearner’slanguageacquisition,butalsothecoreofacertainlanguage.Sincemid-1980s,moreandmoreattentionhasbeenpaidonL2vocabularyacquisitionandtherearevariousfindingsandtheoreticalproposals.However,thereseemstobeaneverlastingdebateaboutwhatisthebestwaytosuccessfulvocabularyacquisition.

2.ThecurrentsituationofVocabularyTeachinginhighschools

InChina,theteachingofEnglishasaforeignlanguagehasalwaysbeendominatedbytheteacher-centered,exam-oriented,grammarandvocabulary-basedmethod.Theteacheralwaysactsas“anauthority,aknowledgegiverandmoralexample”(YuLichen,2005).Althoughteachersandresearchersallbelievethatvocabularyisanessentialpartofmasteringasecondorforeignlanguage,therestilllacksaneffectiveandwell-organizedwaytoteachvocabulary.Someofthempreferthedirectandexplicitteachingofvocabularybystuffingtheirstudentswithallthenewwordsaswellastheirusage,neglectingthecontextandholdingthatitalldependsonstudents’learningbyrote,whileotherswhopreferimplicitteaching,believethatvocabularyshouldbelearntunconsciouslythroughtheaccomplishofsomeotherlearningactivities.

Whenitcomestostudents,agreatnumberofthemwhohavebeenaccustomedtorote-learningaswellasbeingstuffedwithwordusagesregardvocabularyasthemajorobstacleinEnglishlearning.AlthoughvocabularyteachinginChinaisgraduallychangingfromthetraditionalandlimitedmethodstomoredifferentandvariousones,therestillexistsomedeficienciesinvocabularyteaching.

Usually,studentsinhighschoolsareaskedtopreviewthenewwordsbyreadingafterthetapeandtrytomemorizethespellingofthesewords.Then,theteacherwouldexplaintheusageofthesewordsindetailwithsomemoreillustrationsandexamples.Afterthat,studentswereaskedtomemorizethewordsmechanicallybyreadingandwritingthesewordsformanytimesontheirdictationbooksafterclass.Theproceduretendstobetheexplicitenhancement,butalmostnoimplicitinstructionisadoptedforthelearningofvocabulary(HongYin,2007;HuangYumei,2008).Hence,highschoolstudentsgraduallydevelopunbalancedabilityinaspectsofreceptivevocabularyknowledgeandproductivevocabularyknowledge(LiuHong,2004),thatistosay,theymaydowellinreviewingandrecognizingthesuperficialappearanceofsoleword,butcannotuseitorassociateitsvariousknowledgecorrectlyincertaincontextsuchaslistening,speaking,readingandwriting,whichfinallyobliteratetheirlexicalcompetence(QiaoYan,2007).

3.ExplicitandImplicitInstruction

Explicitandimplicitaretwocontrastiveteachingandlearninginstructions.Currentdefinitionsofimplicitandexplicitlearningareoriginatedinthefieldofpsychology.Thesedefinitionsgenerallyfocusonthepresenceorabsenceofconsciousness.

Implicitinstructionreferstoinstructionsthatinvolvelearnersinimplicitorincidentallearningofvocabulary,wherethelearningofvocabularyisthe“by-product”(Hulstijn,2001:271)ofotheractivities.Somewritersalsoholdthatwordsarepickedupintheprocessofotheractivities(Coady,2001;Nagy,2002;Nation,2003;Hulstijn,2003).Implicitteachinginsiststhatvastmajorityofvocabularyaretaughtgraduallythroughrepeatedexposurestovariouscontexts,suchaslisteningtostories,readingmaterials,fillinggapsandworkingingroupsandthereisnoneedfordirectvocabularyinstruction(Huckin&Coady,1999).Soimplicitinstructionisstudent-centeredandtheteacherisafacilitator.

BasedonEllis(1994),theexplicitinstructionisdescribedasaprocesstomakelearnersawareofrulesdeductivelyorinductively.Inexplicitinstruction,learnersfocusontheactivitieswhichcenteronvocabulary.Thereareanumberofvariousexplicitvocabularyexerciseswhichincludewordbuildingexercises,matchingwordswithvarioustypesofdefinitions,studyingwordsincontext,semanticmapping,association,vocabularygamesandsplitinformationactivitiesfocusingonvocabulary(Decarrico,2001;Nation,2003;Nation&Newton,2001).Tosomedegree,theexplicitinstructionisteacher-centered.

In1992,Sterngaveacontrastiveexplanationtotheexplicitandimplicitteachingdimensionjustasfollows:

Figure2.1theexplicit-implicitdimensioninlanguageteachingandlearningstrategies(Stern,19923:327)

ExplicitImplicit

Rational/formal/intellectualIntuitive

ConsciousAutomatic/latent

ConsciouslearningSubconsciousacquisition

Consciousness-raisingAutomatization

Monitoring

ReflectiveUnreflective

DeliberateIncidental

Studialcapacities(Palmer1992)Spontaneouscapacities(Palmer1992)

Problem-solvingAnalogy

AnalysisGlobalunderstanding

CognitivismBehaviourism

AbstractPractical

Rule-learning

Metacognitiveandmetalinguisticstrategies

InferencingMimicryandmemory

RationalistapproachEmpiricistapproach

SystematicstudyExposuretolanguageinuse

Explicitandimplicitstrategiesarecontroversial,andtheeffectsofexplicitenhancementandimplicitenhancementonthereceptivevocabularyknowledgeandproductiveknowledgearealsodifferent,solanguagelearningitselfisacombinationofbothexplicitlearningandimplicitlearning(Long1983,Berry,1994).Toomuchemphasisoneithersidewillmakethelearnersuffer.

4.ProcessesofMemory

Memoryreferstotheorganism’sabilitytostore,retainandrecallinformationandexperiences.Fromtheangleofinformationprocessing,thereexistthreemainstagesintheformationofmemory,thatis,encodingorregistration,storageandretrieval.Thestageofstoragehasalwaysbeenpaidmuchattention.Manyresearchers(Atkinson&Shiffrin,1968;Baddeley&Hitch,1974)agreeuponthefollowingthreetypesofstorageforms,SensoryMemory,Short-termMemoryandLong-termMemory.Threetypesofmemoryareinter-related.

5.ReceptiveVocabularyandProductiveVocabulary

InNation’sopinion,whatreceptivevocabularyknowledgemeansistheabilitytorecognizeorunderstandawordineitherreadingorlistening,whileproductivevocabularyknowledgemeanstheabilitytouseawordinspeakingorwriting(1990).Receptivevocabularyknowledgeisalsonamedpassivereception,whileproductivevocabularyknowledgeiscalledactiveproduction.

6.Explicitvocabularyinstructiontechniques

Explicitvocabularyinstructionplaysanimportantpartinhighschools.Teachingvocabularydirectlycanenhancestudents’comprehensionofnewmaterials.Thefollowingaresomespecificexplicitvocabularyteachingtechniques:

1.Repeatedexposuretowords

Itisbelievedthatthemoreweareexposedtowords,thestrongerourunderstandingbecomes.Offeringagreatnumberofopportunitiesforstudentstousenewwordsinitswrittenandspokenformcanhelpstudentsmasteritbetter.

2.Observation

Thelanguagelearnersmustpaymuchattentiontothelinguisticfeaturesofthenewwords.Observationisnecessaryforlearnerstofindoutwhichwordsarehighfrequencywordsandwhicharedifficultones,whatarethedifferentmeaningsofawordindifferentcontextsandhowtousethemindifferentculturalbackground?

3.Explanation

Explanationisatypicalmethodinwordsteaching.Theteacherwillpresentanexplanationtomakethestudentshaveabetterunderstandingofthelanguage.

4.Mnemonicdevices

InordertohelpstudentsmemorizeEnglishvocabularies,Englishteachercanadoptmanydevices,whichmaybeverbal,visualoracombinationofboth.

5.Relationalthinking

Showingdifferentlanguageformscanhelpstudentsenhancethememoryofvocabulary.Theteacherscanaskstudentstocomparethenewwordswithsomeknownwordsbeforeinstruction.

6.Trial-and-error

Thisisamethodofusingthetargetwordsinrealcontext.Withthismethod,thestudentscanfindouthowthesewordsworkandwhattheyconvey.

7.Restructuringreadingmaterials

Therearemanyunfamiliarwordsinthereadingmaterialswherestudentsmayhavesomedifficultyinunderstandingallofthemwell.Theteacherscanrestructurethesematerialsbyusingsomeeasiersynonymstoreplacethemsothatstudentscanunderstandthembetter.

7.Implicitvocabularyinstructiontechniques

Inimplicitvocabularyteaching,vocabulariesaretaughtthroughvariouscontexts.Teachingvocabularyfromcontext,promotingextensivereading,situationalteachingmethodandtask-basedmethodarethemainimplicitteachingmethod.

1.Teachingvocabularyfromcontext

Teachingvocabularyfromcontextfocusesontheinferringmeaningofthecontext.Thelearnersareencouragedtoguessthemeaningofthenewwordsthroughcontext.

2.Promotingextensivereading

Learnersshouldbeexposedtoalargeamountofcomprehensibleinputtomakeeffectivelearninghappen.(MiltonandMeara,1995).Extensivereadingcanmakelearnersgetgreatexposurestotargetvocabulary.

3.SituationalandTask-basedmethod

Theyaretoputtheprocessoflanguagelearninginspecificsituationsorawiderangeoftasks.Throughthesituationsandtasks,studentscanhavemoreopportunitytousethelanguage.

8.Explicitandimplicitenhancementtohighschoolstudents’vocabularyacquisition.

Explicitinstructionandimplicitinstructionallhavepositiveeffectsonhighschoolstudents’vocabularyretention.

Tobespecific,implicitenhancementhaseffectsonproductivevocabularyacquisition,whileexplicitenhancementhaseffectsonreceptivevocabulary.What’smore,explicitinstructionismoreeffectivethanimplicitinstructioninshorttimeretentionforhighschoolstudents,butimplicitinstructioncanfacilitatemoreinlearner’sreceptiveandproductivevocabularyknowledgeinlongtermmemory.