Gaining Vocabulary Incidentally While Reading Folktales by EFL Students in Min Der Junior High School in Tainan

• Main Authors: Li-man Lin, 林麗滿
• Other Authors: Pen-shui Liao
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/20974478459120305120

碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 91 === Abstract The study mainly aims to investigate whether EFL Min Der Junior High School students in Tainan can incidentally acquire vocabulary more efficiently from reading a literary genre─folktales, which is appropriate to their current level. It they do, it is important to determine whether EFL students’ English proficiency plays an influential factor on their vocabulary gains. That is, whether high-proficiency students get better grades in the vocabulary proficiency tests than middle-proficiency or low-proficiency ones. Based on the purposes of this study, the following research questions will be explored. 1. In the immediate recall tests after reading, do students with high proficiency reveal any vocabulary gains? 2. In the immediate recall tests after reading, do students with middle proficiency reveal any vocabulary gains? 3. In the immediate recall tests after reading, do students with low proficiency reveal any vocabulary gains? 4. Is there any difference in vocabulary gain among high, middle, low proficiency students? 5. Does reading material, which is appropriate to the students’ current level, facilitate their vocabulary acquisition? 6. Do EFL junior high school students with high, middle, low proficiency have different attitudes towards vocabulary through reading folktales? After the experiment, the results of this study prove that all the subjects in this study perform better in posttest than in pretest. That is to say, all the subjects acquired new words after the experiment. Moreover, the results of this study also proved that there is difference in vocabulary gains among high, middle, low proficiency students. It indicates that students with high proficiency got better graders than those with low proficiency. Naturally, it is clear that reading material, which is appropriate to the students’ current level, contribute to their vocabulary acquisition. Finally, most of the subjects agreed that reading the assigned folktales was much more interesting than reading the Unified English Textbooks. It is hoped that the results of this study will provide not only EFL teachers but also EFL students with more innovative ideas for vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, it is expected that the results of this study will help teachers and students adjust their attitude toward how English vocabulary should be taught and learned.