Revisiting Task-Induced Involvement Load and Vocabulary Enhancement: Insights from the EFL Setting of Iran
Revisiting Task-Induced Involvement Load and Vocabulary Enhancement: Insights from the EFL Setting of Iran

Summary/Abstract: This study investigated whether word learning and retention in a second language are contingent upon a task’s involvement load (i.e., the amount of need, search, and evaluation it imposes), as proposed by Laufer and Hulstijn (2001). For this purpose, 77 male and female pre-intermediate Iranian EFL learners were selected based on their performance on a Cambridge reading test. They were then divided into three groups, each completing one of the three vocabulary learning tasks that varied in the amount of involvement they induced. The tasks were reading, reading plus fill-in target words, and sentence writing. Initial learning and retention of the 14 unfamiliar target words of the tasks were tested immediately after completing the tasks and two weeks later. The results indicated that learners benefited more from sentence making which required the comparison of novel words with words already known for the purpose of production. It was hence concluded that the evaluation component may be playing the major role in task-induced involvement load.

• Details
• Contents