The Effect of Task Type on Improving EFL Learners’ Awareness of Academic Register in L2 Vocabulary

Abstract

The literature on second language (L2) writing has reported that learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) lack register awareness, often incorrectly employing lexical items that are common in spoken English (i.e., informal words) in their academic writing, which requires formal register. EFL learners’ essays are informal and colloquial in style and tone as a result, which negatively influences the overall quality of their L2 writing. To address this issue, this study investigated the effect of task type on improving EFL learners’ awareness of academic register in L2 vocabulary. Participants included 139 Korean university students in 16-week academic English courses. Based on the finding that the depth of processing and the amount of repetition determine the effectiveness of vocabulary tasks (Laufer & Rozovski-Roitblat, 2011), various combinations of three types of tasks with different levels of depth of processing (i.e., matching, editing, and sentence-writing) and varying amounts of repetition (i.e., once vs. three times) were employed. Participants studied informal (spoken) and formal (written) vocabulary under five conditions (doing one matching task, doing three matching tasks, doing one editing task, doing three editing tasks, or doing one sentence-writing task) and completed a posttest. Analyses revealed the following results in relation to improving learners’ ability to distinguish between formal and informal words and to their use of formal words in academic writing: (1) the three matching and three editing tasks were significantly more effective than the one sentence-writing task, suggesting that repetition is more important than depth of processing; (2) the matching tasks were as effective as the editing tasks; and (3) students preferred the repetition of editing tasks. These results shed light on the issue of developing register awareness in L2 vocabulary use—a topic that has been underexplored in L2 lexical research. Ultimately, the findings point to a more effective instructional approach to increase L2 learners’ depth of vocabulary knowledge and improve their lexical use in academic writing.