Investigating the Task Involvement Load Hypothesis in EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Learning

초록

This study investigated the effect of different types of tasks on vocabulary learning based on the task involvement load hypothesis. A total of 70 university students participated in the research. Four tasks were used in this study: Task 1 involved reading comprehension, Task 2 gap-filling, Task 3 sentence writing, and Task 4 gap-filling with the aid of a dictionary. Immediate and delayed posttests were administered to measure the participants’ short-term learning and long-term retention of the target vocabulary in both reception and production. For the first analysis, an ANOVA was performed to compare performance on Tasks 1 to 3. The results revealed a significant difference among the three tasks in the immediate posttest, and the writing task yielded the highest scores. Thus, the involvement load hypothesis was partially supported. The second analysis used a t-test to compare performance in Tasks 3 and 4. The results showed a significant difference only in the delayed receptive posttest. These two tasks had the same effect on initial learning, but different effects on the retention of vocabulary learning.

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