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An Empirical Research on the Task-Induced Involvement Load Hypothesis: A Case for International Learning

Zare, Mousa | 2011

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: English
  3. Document No: 42502 (31)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Languages and Linguistics Center
  6. Advisor(s): Jahangard, ALi; Salehi, Mohammad
  7. Abstract:
  8. Laufer and Hulstijn (2001) proposed the Task-Induced Involvement Load Hypothesis stating that in the retention of new words in an incidental context, tasks with higher involvement load will be more effective than tasks with lower involvement load. The present study aimed to examine whether the retention of vocabulary is enhanced with an increase in the amount of task-induced involvement load in an intentional learning environment. Moreover, it was investigated whether proficiency level of learners had a role in the effectiveness of the vocabulary tasks with different involvement loads. Four groups of university students, male and female, participated in the study. They were given a TOEFL proficiency test and assigned as Upper and Lower Intermediate proficient learners. Then they were divided into eight classes with an average of 25 learners. Each two classes constructed one group and conducted the same tasks. Therefore, there were four groups of learners doing four different tasks in two experiments. In the first experiment, three tasks, i.e., reading comprehension and discussion, reading comprehension and gap filling, and reading comprehension plus sentence making with different involvement loads were compared against each other in terms of the immediate and delayed retention of new words. In experiment two, two tasks, reading comprehension plus sentence making and reading comprehension plus translation with the same involvement loads were examined. Ten unknown words were selected through a pretest. During the pretest, learners were asked to underline any of the words they thought was already known. In this way, those participants who knew the meaning of any of these words were omitted from this study. Immediate and delayed retention of the ten unknown words were assessed through two immediate and delayed posttests. The data was analyzed through two-way ANOVAs procedures. The results partially supported the Task-Induced Involvement Load Hypothesis in that the sentence making task group outscored the other two groups on both posttests. However, there was no significant difference between the gap-filling and discussion tasks in terms of retention of the words. Moreover, it was revealed that proficiency level of the learners affected their performance in each task
  9. Keywords:
  10. Dictionary Learning ; Task-Induced Involvement Load Hypothesis ; Intentional Learning Environment ; Vocabulary Learning ; Task

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