The influence of implicit and explicit learning through reading in a school environment: EFL adolescents’ L2 vocabulary acquisition

Thesis

This quantitative experimental study aimed to compare the relative effectiveness of implicit and explicit learning via reading on vocabulary acquisition and retention among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) secondary and high school Korean students. The study is based on Laufer & Hulstijn’s (2001) Involvement Load Theory (henceforth, ILH), which was built to serve the purpose of encouraging theoretical and empirical research in second language (L2) vocabulary learning by proposing a construct of involvement, encompassing motivational and cognitive dimensions such as need, search, and evaluation. One hundred secondary and high school students participated in a 50-minute instructional treatment. Children in the explicit group read a text with a glossary, while children in the implicit group were only provided with the same text but without any glossary. According to Nation (2006), learners must know the most common 8,000-9,000 word families to independently understand 98% of the content in various authentic novels or newspapers. Thirty-one target words were selected based on two criteria: frequency and familiarity. Two renowned word lists, the General Service List (GSL), 2,000 frequent words by West (1953) and the 8,000 British National Corpus (BNC), were used to validate the target word lists. Target words were not included in English's most 2,000 frequent words. Five out of thirty-one target words overlapped with the BNC and ranged between the most frequent 2,000 and 8,000 words. The remaining 26 target words were low-frequency words, beyond the first 8,000 families (Nation, 2006; see also: Schmitt & Schmitt, 2014). These target words were assessed in both the pre-test and the post-test. The pre-test, which tested participants’ prior knowledge of the target words, was a multiple-choice task that required learners to choose the correct definition of the 31 words. The post-test measured the retention of the target words after reading, using a cloze-test that required learners to fill in the blanks. Along with the two tests, LexTALE was conducted between the pre-test and the reading task to measure the students’ English proficiency. After completing the reading task, participants were asked to finish the comprehension test immediately to check their attention towards the reading task. The results showed a non-significant difference between the scores of the explicit and the implicit groups in the post-test. The relationship between language proficiency test scores, the pre-test scores, and the post-test results showed significant differences, meaning that prior knowledge and original proficiency are efficient predictors of vocabulary learning. Finally, the research concludes by addressing discussions, limitations, future directions and implications of the study.

Authors: Jeon, Y

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-jxzo4ogbk
• Type of award: MSc taught course
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: ALSLA2024; quantitative research; implicit and explicit learning; authentic reading; ALSLA; L2 vocabulary acquisition
• Subjects: Implicit learning; Second language acquisition; Quantitative research; Learning; Applied linguistics; Vocabulary