Abstract
The nature of the effect of learning environments’ language setting on second language receptive vocabulary acquisition in both adolescent receptive vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension performance was explored in a continuous 10-month longitudinal study. The current study divided 170 adolescents into four groups. Their reading comprehension ability and receptive vocabulary size were each measured in two different periods. The results showed that single Chinese instructional learning and single English instructional learning contributed more to students’ receptive vocabulary size than bilingual instructional language materials. The results imply that the immersion hypothesis has more positive impact on improving second language receptive vocabulary size acquisition and reading comprehension performance than the depth of processing hypothesis.
Highlights
Vocabulary size is a fundamental factor of understanding text (Lü et al, 2015)
The second aim is to determine whether the immersion learning theory is stronger in L2 vocabulary size enlargement and reading comprehension improvement than the mental effort theory
During Time One, which was at the beginning of the class arrangement test, no significant differences in English vocabulary size scores and English reading comprehension ability scores were found between the students of the four classes continuing at Time Two
Summary
While existing research has investigated the overall advantage of immersion education in terms of learning languages, few research studies of immersion education focused on second language (L2) vocabulary development, especially in two totally orthographically different languages (e.g., Chinese and English). As depth of processing hypothesis points out, learning without additional elaboration may not properly enable students to retain their expanding vocabulary for extended periods of time. In the context of L2 learning, there are currently no studies that compare the two learning conditions mentioned below: immersing students in the written form of learning and the elaboration of learning. Little is known about the effectiveness of either of the methods in vocabulary development, especially for students with poor linguistic knowledge and low socioeconomic standings
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
