(Mark) Feng Teng Nanning University

The best way to improve one’s knowledge of a foreign language is to go and live among its speakers. The next best way is to read extensively in it(Nuttall, 1982,p.168) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language.

 Of all the reading materials available, graded readers are the most useful for EFL vocabulary learning as the materials are specifically written using high frequency words. In addition, the coverage, density, and repetition of vocabulary in graded readers are statistically measured (Nation & Wang, 1999).

Vocabulary can be learned gradually through repeated exposure to target words (Day, Omura, and Hiramatsu, 1991; Horst, 2005; Webb, 2008).

Paribakht and Wesche (1997) ---the process of incidental vocabulary learning is time-consuming and ineffective Schmitt (1998)---there is still room for more probing into the unsolved issue of incidental vocabulary learning Recent study: Webb, Newton, & Chang (2013)

 A. One time  B. Five times  C. Ten times  D. fourteen Times

 It depends

 The research on the frequency of word occurrence is a continual subject of vocabulary learning and a part of representations of human memory.  Rott (1999) –six times  Waring and Takaki (2003) –eight times  high-frequency words are easier to learn and remember (e.g., Day, Omura, & Hiramatsu, 1991; Horst, Cobb & Meara, 1998; Waring & Takaki, 2003)  Limits: multiple-choice tests or translation tests  What about the depth of vocabulary knowledge?

 The depth of vocabulary knowledge is concerned with the level of understanding the various aspects of a given word.  Related research:  Horst, Cobb, and Meara (1998) ---a word association test  What we need to do: from the perspective of the depth of vocabulary knowledge is needed.  Why: because understanding full aspects of vocabulary knowledge is a sign that a learner shows full command of words (Waring & Nation, 2004).

 Two tests for testing the depth of vocabulary knowledge:  The first one is the word-association test. Take the following example:  (The ke_ to solve the problem is on her hands).   The second one: word usage-judgment test, e.g.,:  (She found the ke to open the door).  1. The ke to happiness is in your hand _T_  2. I think we should write down the ke problems __T__  3. I would be k for those who trust me __F__  4. This problem is unke because many people don’t take it seriously. __F__

 Materials and target words  How to choose an appropriate graded  reader that meets learners’ current levels?  One method is to select some words to test whether learners have acquired them.  The method in the current study:  Nation’s (1993) test of 1,000 words  The learners whose score was 10–20 were chosen for this study, and two books at the first stage were chosen.

How to measure the frequency of word occurrence in the selected two books *a computer software frequency The total tokens(6,199) Types(565) --The first book: love or money The total tokens(12,881) Types(905) --The Second book: Mary queen of Scots For the first book, the lexical coverage was 96% by types at the 14 times of word occurrence, and, for the second book, the lexical coverage was 96% by types at the 22 times of word occurrence. Six groups, with each group included 6 words with frequencies of one time, 4–6 times, 8–10 times, 14–16 times, 18–20 times, and 21–22 times. 565: 6, :12,881

Only once 4-6 times8-10 times14-16 times18-20 times21-22 times Walk*Wedding* (4 times) Difficult* (8 times) Table* (16 times) Garden* (20 times) give* (22 times) Trouble*Work* (5 times) Cry* (10 times) Police* (16 times) Time* (20 times) House* (22 times) Build*wicked* (6 times) Village* (9 times) Foster* (14 times) Like* (20 times) friend* (21 times) AccidentCareful (4 times) Thought (8 times) Sudden (15 times) Need (18 times) Inspect (22 times) VisitRemember (6 times) Finish (8 times) Castle (14 times) Nothing (19 times) Angry (21 times) DetectiveScream (4 times) Important (10 times) Forget (16 times) Talk (19 times) Queen (22times)

 using synonyms??  The spelling of target words, e.g., house is substituted with windle, an unfamiliar word to the learner.(Waring & Takaki, 2003)  This study provided the two letters of the target words in the text. For example, the sentence Last month I was in tr____ with the police. How to present the words with the surrounding co-text?

 Retention ability is the key factor in testing learners’ memory of vocabulary knowledge, and research have been conducted to measure how much vocabulary learning was retained over time systematically (Yamazaki, 1996; Waring & Takaki, 2003).  Limit: it is confined to the same group with the same tests for measuring retention ability.  The current study: This study divided the learners into two groups to compare learners’ retention abilities of target words.

 Participants  90 non-English major students aged from 18–20 at the lower-intermediate level from a vocational college in Guangxi Nation’s (1993) 1,000 vocabulary test 80 learners with scores from 10–20 were welcome to the reading program.

1. Teacher prepared and printed the two selected books with 36 target words substituted with the first two letters. For example, the sentence Last month I was in tr____ with the police students Group 1 Group 2 Two hours a week 6 weeks for reading the two books-first time reading A word-association test 5 weeks for reading the two books-second time reading Word-association test- group1Word usage-judgment test-group 2 Three months later Word-association test- group1 Word-usage judgment test- group 2

 1.Do learners’ vocabulary performances increase after taking this reading program? If so, how many new words are learned incidentally?  2.Do learners’ vocabulary performances increase more for the words with higher occurrence rates than for the words with lower occurrence rates?  3.Do learners achieve better results for the words occurring again in the second book?  4.At which occurrence rate will the words be forgotten more easily?  5.Do the two tests yield different results?  6.Will the learners achieve better results if they get familiar with tests?  7.Will the learners forget the words without receiving any reading for three months?  8.Will the group of learners receiving consecutive reading during the three months achieve better results than the group of learners receiving no reading?

Reading for the first time(n=80) Reading for the second time(n=80) Three months after the reading program (G1=40;G2=40) M.S.D.M.S.D.M.(G 1) S.D. (G1) M.(G2 ) S.D. (G2) Word associat ion test Word usage judgme nt test Note. G1=Group 1 (not receiving reading during the three months) G2=Group 2(With consecutive reading during the three months) Table 2. The distribution of mean scores of the two tests Results

Table 3 The mean scores of words with different frequency of occurrence for the word-association test Once4-6 times 8-10 times times times times Reading for the first time 15F S Reading for the second time 15F S Three months after the progra m G115F S G215F S Note. 15F= The 15 words occur only in the first book 15S= The 15 words occur again in the second book

Table 4 The mean scores of words with different frequency of occurrence for the word-usage judgment test Once4-6 times 8-10 times times times times Reading for the second time 15F S Three months after the progra m G115F S G215F S Note. 15F= The 15 words occur only in the first book 15S= The 15 words occur again in the second book

Table 5 Paired sample T-test results of the two tests in different administered time *Significant at 0.05 level

 1.Do learners’ vocabulary performances increase after taking this reading program? If so, how many new words are learned incidentally?  2.Do learners’ vocabulary performances increase more for the words with higher occurrence rates than for the words with lower occurrence rates?  3.Do learners achieve better results for the words occurring again in the second book?  4.At which occurrence rate will the words be forgotten more easily?  5.Do the two tests yield different results?  6.Will the learners achieve better results if they get familiar with tests?  7.Will the learners forget the words without receiving any reading for three months?  8.Will the group of learners receiving consecutive reading during the three months achieve better results than the group of learners receiving no reading?

 The group of learners receiving consecutive reading performed significantly better than the group of learners that did not receive consecutive reading (table 2 & table 5). Concerning the rate of forgetting, more than half of the words that occurred fewer than 14 times were not remembered by the learners who did not receive any reading for three months (table 3 & table 4). This result is different from Waring and Takaki (2003), who showed that words occurring fewer than 8 times are easily forgotten.

 1. The overall conclusion is that the higher the frequency of word occurrence is, the better the results learners get.  2. From the results of the two prompted tests, it is assumed that to have a 50% chance of recognizing a target word for a first time reading, 14 times of meeting the word is the prerequisite. After the second time reading, 8 times of meeting the word is enough for a 50% chance of word meaning recognition. For learners who receive consecutive reading for three months, they only need 4 times to meet a word for a 50 % chance of comprehension. If words are met only one time, it is very difficult for learners to recognize or memorize word meanings. For words, which occur again in a second book, the number of times is decreased to half of the number of previous times that learners need.

 The learners showed an overall improvement in learning vocabulary, but the number of words that they learned was, incidentally, very limited and most of the new words that they learned were the result of repeated exposures to target words or a higher frequency of occurrence rates. The higher the frequency of a word’s occurrence rate, the better the results that learners achieve.  At least 14 times that the word should be exposed.  This study proposes that if words are met for only one time, it is very difficult for learners to recognize or memorize the word meanings. This highlights the importance of repeating already known words in learning vocabulary or in designing reading books. Instead of introducing new words every time, repeated exposure to already known words is more important and meaningful.

 1. The words in this study were explicitly provided and highlighted, which forced the learners to notice and be aware of these target words. The point of whether the words should be highlighted or put in a natural way is not discussed in this study. Future studies to make more improvements regarding this controversial issue are appreciated.  2. An unprompted form-meaning connection to test learners’ retention abilities are also appreciated.