任务类型与英语词汇习得实验研究

An experimental study of task type and EFL vocabulary acquisition

任务设计是英语教学的主要特征。本文通过实验调查任务类型对英语学习者即时词汇习得的影响。88名英语学习者被随机分配到形式类、意义类或混合类任务中,并接受新词拼写、词类和词义知识的测量。研究发现,各个任务在拼写和词类知识方面没有差异;在词义知识方面,意义类和混合类任务之间没有差异,但是它们均好于形式类任务。在词汇教学的初始阶段,意义类任务比形式类任务更好。

Task design is a typical feature of EFL teaching. This article reports on an experiment where the task type effects on EFL learners immediate vocabulary acquisition were examined. 88 EFL learners were randomly assigned to each of the form-, meaning- and mixed-focused tasks, and were subsequently tested on the spelling, part-of-speech and semantic knowledge of newly-encountered words. No significant differences were found among the tasks in either spelling or part-of-speech knowledge. In semantic knowledge, the meaning- and mixed-focused tasks showed no significant difference, both of which significantly outperformed the form-focused task. Meaning-focused tasks are preferred to form-focused ones at the initial stage of vocabulary teaching.