A Study on the Effects of Chinese EFL Learners’ English Proficiency and Involvement Load on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

The effects of EFL learners’ English proficiency and involvement load induced by tasks on incidental vocabulary acquisition are observed in this study. 163 students of non-English majors in a local university of China were divided into two groups of different English proficiency according to their scores of College English Test Band 4 (CET-4). The students in each group were randomly assigned one of three tasks (reading-for-comprehension, blank-filling, and writing) involving 10 target words. Fifteen minutes after they finished the task, they were required to take an immediate vocabulary test about the target words. Two weeks later, they were asked to take the same kind of vocabulary test to examine their delayed memory of the target words. All of the students did not know about the vocabulary tests beforehand. The results show that: in the process of immediate incidental vocabulary acquisition, both learners’ English proficiency and involvement load have a main effect on immediate memory, but the interactive effect of these two factors on incidental vocabulary acquisition is not significant; in the vocabulary retention test, learners’ English proficiency does not have a significant main effect on delayed memory, but the main effect of involvement load is still significant; at the same time, the interactive effect of these two factors is still not significant.