Designing effective pedagogical tasks has been of critical interest among secondlanguage (L2) researchers and teachers. Accordingly, several claims about how to classify pedagogic task characteristics in terms of their effectiveness in L2 learning have been made. One such example is the involvement load hypothesis , which claims that learning new words during vocabulary-focused tasks is dependent on the degree of cognitive processing required of an L2 learner by a given task. Building upon Hulstijn and Laufer's (2001) original research, which partially supported the hypothesis, the present study examined the hypothesis by exploring the interaction between task-induced involvement and learners' L2 proficiency on the initial learning and retention of target words. The study consisted of two experiments that were carried out with English-as-a-second-language learners at two different proficiency levels (i.e., matriculated undergraduate students vs. students in an Intensive English Program). Experiment 1 tested the hypothesis with three tasks imposing different levels of taskinduced involvement (n = 64), whereas Experiment 2 included two tasks hypothesized to represent the same task-induced involvement (n = 20). In line with the predictions of the involvement load hypothesis, the findings of Experiment 1 indicated that a higher level of learner involvement during task performance promoted more effective initial learning and retention of target words. Additionally, Experiment 2 showed that different tasks with the same involvement load resulted in a similar amount of vocabulary

Previous research has shown that second language (L2) learners reflect on language form when carrying out collaborative activities in L2 classrooms. This study explored which language forms Korean as a second language (KSL) learners focused on and how their linguistic issues were resolved when collaborating with interlocutors from different proficiency levels. Eight intermediate Korean L2 learners interacted with an intermediate interlocutor (n= 8) and with an advanced interlocutor (n = 8). Their collaborative dialogue was analyzed in terms of (a) the occurrence and resolution of lexical and grammatical language-related episodes (LREs) and (b) the patterns of interaction with their interlocutors. Results showed that the collaborative dialogue with advanced interlocutors contained significantly more lexical LREs and correctly resolved LREs. In terms of their patterns of interaction, the learners showed different pair dynamics when collaborating with interlocutors from different proficiency levels. The findings are discussed in terms of the pedagogical implications for the use of collaborative tasks in L2 classrooms.

Hulstijn and Laufer (2001) proposed a motivational-cognitive construct of task-induced involvement to account for variation in effectiveness among different vocabulary learning tasks. Building upon their original research, this study consisted of two experiments investigating the involvement load hypothesis in vocabulary learning. Experiment 1 compared the performance of 64 adult English as a second language (ESL) learners from a range of countries at two different proficiency levels (i.e., matriculated undergraduate students vs. students in an Intensive English Program) to ascertain the effectiveness of three vocabulary tasks with different levels of task-induced involvement. Experiment 2 investigated whether two tasks hypothesized to represent the same level of task-induced involvement would result in equivalent initial learning and retention of target words by 20 adult ESL learners at two different levels of proficiency. The results of Experiment 1 showed that a higher level of learner involvement during the task promoted more effective initial vocabulary learning and better retention of the new words. The findings of Experiment 2 indicated that when different tasks had the same involvement load, they resulted in similar amounts of initial vocabulary learning and retention of new words. The results of the two experiments are discussed in light of the involvement load hypothesis.Keywords involvement load hypothesis; processing depth theory; task-induced involvement; second language vocabulary acquisition; English as a second language; learner proficiency

No abstract

No abstract