Task-Induced Involvement Load in Korean EFL Incidental Vocabulary Learning

Abstract

This study aimed to examine whether the difference of involvement load affects vocabulary learning of Korean EFL high school learners depending on their English proficiency levels. Two hundred three high school students of two proficiency levels completed one of the three vocabulary tasks inducing different involvement load. Two post-tests were administered to measure the participants’ short-term learning and long-term retention: immediately after and two weeks after the treatment, respectively. The results showed that both factors, difference of involvement load and proficiency levels had main effects on the participants’ short-term learning and long-term retention on the target words. However, from the one-way ANOVA conducted to see how each factor operates as a single independent variable in learners’ vocabulary learning, only high-level learners were affected by the difference of involvement load, whereas all task groups were affected by proficiency levels. Moreover, this study only partially confirmed the Involvement Load Hypothesis claiming that a task of higher involvement load promotes better retention on new words: task 1 group (involvement load 1) was significantly lower than task 2 group (involvement load 2), but task 3 group (involvement load 3) was not significantly better than task 2 group in vocabulary learning outcomes.