Vocabulary acquisition in learning English as a second language: Examining the Involvement Load Hypothesis and language anxiety with Taiwanese college students.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact on Taiwanese students' English vocabulary retention, task difficulty ratings, and task utility ratings under varied task load conditions (reading only, fill-in-the-blanks, writing) when controlling for level of trait anxiety. The task loads were based on the Involvement Load Hypothesis. The effects of task load on state anxiety were also examined. The participants in this study were 111 Taiwanese students, who were not English majors, from three English classes taught by the same teacher and using the same textbook at a university located in Northern Taiwan. The research findings included the following: students in the reading only group (with the lowest task load) generated higher vocabulary retention than the fill-in-the-blanks group (with a medium task load) when controlling for trait anxiety; after the learning tasks were completed, all students reported reduced state anxiety; the reading only group, which had the lowest task load, reported the highest difficulty ratings; students did not report higher utility ratings in higher task load conditions compared to lower ones when controlling for trait anxiety. One implication of this study is that the Involvement Load Hypothesis was able to distinguish between the lowest and highest load tasks, but did not adequately describe the moderate task. Further research should examine this and either revise or expand the model for more precision.