관여도 가설과 어휘학습: 과업유형과 구체도가 숙달도 수준이 다른 한국 대학생들의 어휘학습에 미치는 영향

Abstract

The present study examines the claim that task-induced involvement load has an effect on vocabulary learning and aims at investigating the effect of task types and word concreteness on intentional vocabulary learning in Korean EFL context. More specifically, this study was designed to test whether the productive word-focused tasks that are equal in total involvement load but have differential index levels of each component (Need, Search, and Evaluation) result in equally effective vocabulary learning. Three types of productive word-focused tasks (gap-filling, sentence writing, and gap-filling through word transformation) were used and a total of 101 participants were divided into three groups based on their English proficiency level. Moreover, for the purpose of investigating the effect of word concreteness on vocabulary learning, two groups of target words were selected depending on the level of concreteness: one group with 18 abstract words and the other with 18 more concrete words. Before starting the experiment phase, all the participants were asked to check their prior knowledge on the target words. Each of the subjects was requested to participate in all the three tasks with the total involvement load being equal but with the distribution of each component being totally different: gap-filling (Need 1, Search 1, Evaluation 1), sentence writing (Need 1, Search 0, Evaluation 2), and gap-filling through word transformation (Need 1, Search 2, Evaluation 0). Following completion of the three tasks, immediate and delayed(2 weeks later) vocabulary test were conducted and three types of vocabulary test (writing L1, selecting L2, selecting L1) were used to measure various aspects of vocabulary knowledge and then mean scores of each task and each test were compared. According to the result of a one-way analysis of variance, test types had a significant positive impact on intentional vocabulary learning. Furthermore, the effect size of a test type was so large that a test type is considered a very important variable for vocabulary learning. However, a significant difference from vocabulary scores between three task groups was not found except for the delayed vocabulary test 2. That means three types of tasks with the same total involvement load led to the equally effective results for vocabulary learning despite the differential levels of each component, which supports involvement load hypothesis. The result of two-way analysis of variance indicated that there was a significant main effect of proficiency levels and a large effect size of proficiency levels on vocabulary learning was found. However, no interaction effects of task types and proficiency levels on vocabulary retention were not found. The result of two-way analysis of variance showed that there was a significant positive effect of word concreteness but an effect size of word concreteness was small. However, significant interaction effects between word concreteness and task types and between word concreteness and proficiency levels were found. Word concreteness effect was found only with the beginner level group and gap-filling through word transformation task. According to context availability theory, by providing abstract words that are more difficult to learn within a sentence-level context, context information was activated for abstract words, which alleviated the learning burden. As a result, both concrete and abstract words become easy to learn and remember. In the present study, concreteness effect (concrete words are easier to learn than abstract ones) disappeared with the most proficiency groups and task types, which supports context availability theory. In sum, the findings of the present study generally support Laufer & Hulstijn (2001)‘s involvement load hypothesis and proficiency levels and test types proved important variables affecting vocabulary learning. Moreover, word concreteness has a main effect on vocabulary learning, and significant interaction effects between concreteness and task types and between concreteness and proficiency levels were found. The pedagogical implications and further suggestions for future studies are provided.