師大學報﹒人文與社會類
民團 97 年，53(1) , 83-115
The Impact of Supplemental Reading on
V ocabulary Acquisition and Retention with
EFL Leamers in Taiwan
Hui-Tzu Min
Wen-Shan Hsu
Department ofForeign Languages and Literature,
National Cheng Kung University
National Tainan Second Senior High School
Abstract
Research has shown that incidental vocabulary leaming takes place when leamers read extensively. However, not many EFL students can engage in large amounts of reading in Taiwan. In an attempt to incorporate larger amounts of reading into EFL c1assroom instruction and to compare the effect of this practice with that of vocabulary exercises, the researchers conducted a c1assroom司based
study over a 5-week period. The participants were 50 male students, at an intermediate level of English proficiency, in their third year of study in a senior high schoo1. Half of them received the reading-plus-vocabulary- enhancement (RV) instructional treatment: they read selected texts and also practiced various vocabulary exercises. The other half received the narrow reading (NR) treatment: they read thematically-related supplemental materials on the same topics presented in the selected texts. A Chinese version of the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) was then employed to assess students' knowledge of 50 vocabulary items. The RV group significantly outperformed the NR group on both acquisition and retention tests, and demonstrated significant1y more productive knowledge on the acquisition test and more receptive knowledge on both tests.
Keywords: vocabulary exercises, vocabulary acquisition and retention, EFL leamers,
Taiwan
Introduction
Vocabulary knowledge has long been deemed a major determinant influencing ESLlEFL reading comprehension (Laufer, 1997). Yet not until recent1y did the issue of vocabulary acquisition receive a
