Incidental Acquisition and Intentional Learning in Second Language Acquisition

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.211020.202How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Incidental Acquisition, Intentional Learning, Idiom’s Learning, Efficiency, Retention

Abstract

Vocabulary is one of the most paramount importance in the second language (L2) learning and teaching process. The main purpose of this paper is to compare the effects of two L2 learning methods (incidental acquisition and intentional learning) on China’s high school students who are learning English as a foreign language. The research applied both quantitative and qualitative methods. 5 target English idioms were selected as the learning material. 80 high school students were chosen and divided into two groups. They either watched video clips containing the 5 idioms as incidental acquisition approach or recited the 5 idioms directly as an intentional learning approach. Both groups were given 3 tests: 10 minutes after the input, 2 days, and 7 days later. An interview survey was conducted one week later after the last test, 3 students from each group participated in the interview. The results of the tests show that the incidental acquisition group outperformed the intentional learning group in general. Still, too much irrelevant information in the incidental input may distract the learners’ attention and decrease vocabulary learning efficiency. The interview findings indicate that high school students prefer the incidental acquisition method, which requires less pressure and effort, though the intentional learning method provides higher retention rates. The research reveals that learning L2 incidentally from watching informative video clips can be very effective for high school L2 learners. However, considering China’s highly pressured exam-oriented high school study reality, intentional learning should still be the dominating method to assure efficiency.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Shuang Chen
AU  - Min Tang
AU  - Mingdan Zheng
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/10/21
TI  - Incidental Acquisition and Intentional Learning in Second Language Acquisition
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Public Relations and Social Sciences (ICPRSS 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 475
EP  - 483
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211020.202
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.211020.202
ID  - Chen2021
ER  -