出版社:The International Institute for Science, Technology and Education (IISTE)
摘要:This study aims to understand the relationship between text comprehension and incidental vocabulary gain, and the effect of topic familiarity on these variables. Freshman students of the ELT department at a state university took part in this repeated-measures design. A background questionnaire was employed to decide more and less familiar topics for the present group. On a five-point Likert scale, they were asked to rate how much familiar they are with the listed topics. Following the administration of the questionnaire, they read four contrived script-based texts two of which have a more familiar content, while the remaining two texts present less familiar information. Upon reading, they completed a free recall task. Passage sight vocabulary was tested 2 days and 18 days after reading the texts through vocabulary recognition and vocabulary production tasks. Correlational analyses and t-test results depicted robust effects of topic familiarity for all variables; however, the relationship between text comprehension and vocabulary gains was mediocre.
关键词:Topic familiarity; incidental vocabulary acquisition; reading in a second language