任务难度和趣味性对英语视听输入中词汇附带习得的影响

Effects of Task Difficulty and Interestingness on Incidental Vocabulary Learning from Audio⁃visual English Input

语言学习是认知、情感协同作用的结果,而二语研究却有重认知而轻情感的倾向。本研究聚焦任务趣味性这一情感因素,以中下水平的二语学习者为受试,探讨任务难度及趣味性对视听输入中二语词汇附带习得的影响。结果显示:1)视听输入的语言难度和趣味性呈显著的负相关,若要考察趣味性的影响,需控制语言难度因素;2)任务难度(双语字幕vs无字幕)可以影响视听输入中词汇附带习得的效果,难度低(双语字幕)的观影任务习得效果更好;3)控制语言难度和任务难度后,任务趣味性能显著影响二语词汇附带习得效果,趣味性越高,习得效果越好。研究结果部分解释了投入量假设预测力不足的原因,也为视听输入促学研究提供了一定启示,同时为扭转二语研究轻情感这一倾向提供了实证支持。

Cognition and affection are both key factors for language learning. L2 research, however,has a tendency to emphasize cognition and neglect affection. Taking the affective factor of interestingness as its focus, the present study intends to investigate the effects of task difficulty and interestingness on incidental vocabulary learning from audio-visual input by Chinese EFL learners.Results show that(1) linguistic difficulty of the audio-visual input was negatively correlated with interestingness of the input, and thus to examine the effect of interestingness the impact of linguistic difficulty should be controlled;(2) subjects' incidental vocabulary learning was affected by task difficulty(bilingual subtitle vs. no subtitle) in such a way that lower difficulty led to better learning;and(3) interestingness of the audio-visual input had an significant impact on incidental vocabulary learning, i.e., the more interesting the input, the better the learning effects. These findings provide some implications to audio-visual input as an L2 learning facilitator and partially account for why the Involvement Load Hypothesis is insufficient in its predictability, thereby lending empirical support to the importance of affective factors in L2 learning.