论文总字数：29292字

摘 要

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Research purpose of the study 2

2. Literature review 3

2.1EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition 3

2.2Theoretical Background 3

3. Methodology 9

3.1 Research questions 9

3.2 Data collection 9

3.3 Data analysis 10

4. Results and discussions 11

4.1 Results 12

4.2 Discussions 14

5．Conclusions 11

5.1 Major findings of the study 16

5.2 Implications 16

5.2.1 Theoretical implications 16

5.2.2 Pedagogical implications 17

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for future research………………………...…………….17

References……………………………………………………………………………………..…………..19

Acknowledgements

The writing of this paper is one of the real challenges I have ever encountered in my life and it is an outcome of support, encouragement and love I received from so many people. Here I would like to take the opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to those who have contributed, directly and indirectly, to the completion of this paper.

My deepest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Mr. Bao Gui, for his painstaking effort in guiding me through the various stages of writing this paper. Through the whole working period on the paper, he helped me choose the topic, collect the data, and analyze the data with the software. If it were not for his patient guidance, continuous encouragement and generous support, I could not have made this work possible. Furthermore, it is my honor to benefit a lot from his personalities and diligence, which I will treasure in my whole life.

I would like to thank all the other teachers for their enlightenment, knowledge, encouragement and help throughout my undergraduate study at Nanjing Tech University.

Special thanks go to my dear friends and fellow students, who have accompanied me throughout the years at the university.

Last but not least, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to my parents for their love and support all these years.

Abstract

This study focuses on the effect of listening input frequency on EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition. The research is aimed to answer the following questions:

1. Is there any significant difference in correctly understanding EFL target words between the low and high listening input frequency groups?

2. Is there any significant difference in correctly producing EFL target words in sentences between the low and high listening input frequency groups?

The subjects were 52 chemical international major English learners from Nanjing Tech University. According to scores of TEM-4, subjects were selected and divided into 2 equal groups. Group one listened to the listening material only once, while group two listened to the same listening material twice. They were asked to listen to a passage Learning How to Learn. They were given 10 minutes to listen to the listening material and 4 minutes to finish the listening comprehension test. The listening responses were input into computer by the researcher. To ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data, the data of listening comprehension test were transcribed by the researcher and checked by the researcher twice. Altogether 52 answers were derived from the experiment. After attaining the data, the researcher applied independent samples t-test to conduct analyses to answer the research questions.

From the analyses of the data, the following conclusions have been reached. An inter-group comparison of different frequency of listening input shows that there is no significant inter-group difference in vocabulary acquisition. It means that with the increasing of listening input frequency, there is no significant change in EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition. Therefore, we do not have to overmuch focus on the effects of listening input frequency on EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition.

This study may provide some insights for EFL teaching. Results from the study have shown the possibilities in the improvement of EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition through more listening input. Therefore, it might enable the diagnostician to perceive deficiencies in EFL learners’ vocabulary that would otherwise go unobserved. Moreover, it might enlighten curriculum designers to refine the teaching of listening in order to help EFL learners to achieve better performance in vocabulary acquisition.

Key words: listening input frequency vocabulary acquisition effect

中文摘要

本文旨在研究听力输入频数对英语学习者词汇习得的影响。并通过研究，回答以下问题：

1、听力输入频数高低组对目标词汇的正确理解是否有显著差异？

2、听力输入频数高低组对目标词汇的正确产出是否有显著差异？

本研究的受试者是52名来自南京工业大学化学国际专业的英语学习者。根据四级成绩，挑选出受试者并平均分为2组。同样的听力材料，组一听一遍，组二听两遍。听力文章：学会如何学习。他们有10分钟听听力材料和4分钟完成相关的听力测试。听力答案由研究者输入计算机。为了保证数据的准确性和可靠性，听力测试的数据转录工作仍由研究者完成，并重复检查一次。此次实验共得到52份答案。研究者在获得数据后，应用软件进行独立样本t检验，进一步分析回答之前提出的研究问题。

数据分析后，得出了以下结论：组间比较显示，不同的听力输入频数组间，英语学习者对词汇习得不存在显著差异。这说明了随着听力输入频数的增加，英语学习者词汇习得无显著变化。因此在英语教学中，不必太过强调听力输入频数在词汇习得方面的影响。

本研究可为外语教学提供了一些见解。研究结果已经展现了通过更多的听力输入改善英语学习者词汇习得的可能性。因此，此研究使专家能够感知到英语学习者在词汇习得上的其他方面未被注意到的不足之处。此外，本研究可以启发课程设计者改进听力教学，以此帮助英语学习者在词汇习得方面得到更好的表现。

关键词：听力输入 频数 词汇习得 影响

• 1. Introduction

This study is aimed at exploring the effects of listening input frequency on EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition. This chapter shows the general background and the significance of the current study.

Listening input frequency is closely related to the EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition. So far much research has been done on the effect of different tasks on EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition (Nagy et al., 1987; Dupy amp; Krashen, 1993; Laufer, 2002; Min, H-T, 2008; Bao amp; Wang, 2013). But little has been done on the relationship between listening input frequency and EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition.

During the past decades, much study has been conducted on different tasks of vocabulary acquisition of both L1 learners and EFL learners (Nagy et al., 1987; Dupy amp; Krashen, 1993; Laufer, 2002; Min, H-T, 2008; Bao amp; Wang, 2013).

That reading is feasible and effective for vocabulary acquisition has been confirmed by lots of literature (Nagy et al., 1987; Dupy amp; Krashen, 1993).

A variety of EFL learners’ vocabulary learning tasks have been used to increase the effectiveness of the incidental vocabulary leaning while reading (Hulstijn amp; Laufer 2001; Kim, 2011; Huang, 2004; Wu, Lang, amp; Dang, 2007).

Although much improvement on EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition has been made, little research has been conducted on EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition through listening.

That acquire vocabulary in audio and video mode is possible has been proved by the experiment of Dupy amp; Krashen, (1993).

A few studies also further discussed which specific listening condition is more conductive of vocabulary acquisition. As Joe (1998) found that constantly listening to group discussion material can acquire vocabulary. Domestic research in this aspect is less, only few studies compared the vocabulary acquisition effects of listening input and reading input (such as Wang Yan, 2002).

• 1. Need for the study

Pedagogically, as the base of language, vocabulary is used to construct large structures, such as sentences, paragraphs and whole passages. EFL learners’ vocabulary is critical important to EFL learners and teachers. Study how different factors affect EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition, are needed to facilitate learning and teaching EFL learners’ vocabulary.

The motives for such research include the motives for much scientific inquiry. But in addition this knowledge of the relationship between vocabulary acquisition and listening input frequency would have practical consequences. It might enable the diagnostician to perceive deficiencies in EFL learners’ vocabulary that would otherwise go unobserved. Moreover, it might enlighten curriculum designers to refine the teaching of listening in order to help EFL learners to achieve better performance in vocabulary acquisition.

• 1. Research purpose

The research is directed on a comparison of EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition between high and low listening input frequency.

Some facts about how vocabulary acquisition and listening input frequency in EFL learning are related can be detected. Hopefully, the findings of the present study are of value to EFL learners and teachers in the respect of vocabulary learning and teaching by offering them some useful suggestions.

• 1. Literature review

This section consists of four parts. The first part briefly addresses EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition. Then it reviews the related theoretical background, followed by the third part, outlining the empirical studies on EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition. The review ends with the limitations in the previous studies on EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition.

2.1 EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition

As is known to all, as the vital part of a language, vocabulary is the unity of structure and meaning in the language system. In order to achieve effective communication, EFL learners have to face with the main difficult that they need to acquire enormous vocabulary.

In recent years, research conducted has thrown light on EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition.

As an important part of EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition, Incidental and intentional learning must be mentioned. Incidental learning is the process of learning something without the intention of doing so. It is also learning one thing while intending to another (Richards amp; Schmidt, 2002).

According to Nagy et al. (1985), a large amount of the L1 vocabulary knowledge children acquire is neither from the formal classroom instruction, nor by consulting the dictionary. Instead, children gain L1 vocabulary in their real life, such as reading stories, watching TV series, listening to the radio and so on. Brown et al. (1999) indicated that in second language condition also can use the term of incidental vocabulary acquisition. Wesche and Paribakht (1999) stated that when learners pay attention to the meaning of the text they read, but not of the new words, incidental vocabulary acquisition takes place.

As opposed to incidental vocabulary acquisition, Hulstjin and Laufer (2001) argued that intentional vocabulary acquisition is an activity which aimed at deliberately committing lexical information to memory and keeping that information readily accessible.

Hulstijn and Laufer (2001) argued that “in experiments investigating incidental vocabulary learning, learners are typically required to perform a task involving the processing of some information without being told in advance that they will be tested afterwards on their recall of that information”.

It can be concluded that incidental EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition happens when learners are busy with some other activities (reading, listening, writing and speaking), and there is no intention to learn new word. Though they neither focus their attention on the meaning of the word, nor are informed of the following test before, they still pick up the word.

2.2 Theoretical Background

The effects of different tasks are manifest in vocabulary acquisition. It means that the ability of vocabulary acquisition can be improved by a variety of tasks

In a series of studies (Nagy et al. 1985; Nagy et al. 1987; Nagy and Herman 1985, 1987), Nagy and his colleagues defines theory which is widely accepted today in both first and second language acquisition. Central to their theory is that incidental vocabulary learning is a gradual process in which gains are made in small increments with repeated encounters needed to gain full knowledge of a word.

In fact, in the field of vocabulary acquisition, some researchers (Laufer, 1991, 1997; Nation, 1993; Ridgway, 1997; Smith, 1998) found that vocabulary acquisition was closely related to reading comprehension. While reading an English text, vocabulary difficulty has consistently been found to be the most significant predictor of overall readability (Nation amp; Coady, 1988). If vocabulary acquisition is the key point of reading comprehension, how many words does an EFL learner need to learn then?

Laufer (1991, pp.126-132) estimated that “the turning point of vocabulary size for reading comprehension is about 3,000 word families.” By word families, she meant a base form plus its inflected and derived forms, which increases the total amount to about 5,000 lexical items. In other words, without the basic 3,000 word families, or 5,000 lexical items, ESL/EFL learners are less likely to predict with relative success the meanings of an authentic text. Only when learners have a command of 3,000 word families can they understand about 90% to 95% of the running words of any text.

Lots of literature confirms that reading is feasible and effective for vocabulary acquisition (Nagy et al., 1987; Dupy amp; Krashen, 1993), but little research has been conducted on the relationship between listening and vocabulary acquisition. Only a few studies (Joe, 1998; Wang, 2002) discussed which specific listening conditions are more conductive to EFL vocabulary acquisition.

3. Methodology

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