The effects of tasks on the learning of lexical bundles by Chinese EFL learners

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of task-induced involvement load on the learning of lexical bundles. One of the three tasks with varying involvement load was assigned to 70 non-English major students. The three tasks were reading comprehension, reading comprehension plus gap-filling, and sentence writing. Upon completion of the tasks, the students were given an immediate posttest. One week later, the students were given the same test. Sentence writing group significantly outperformed the other two groups on both immediate and delayed posttests. A one-way ANOVA was performed to analyze the relationship between the learning of lexical bundles and various involvement loads. The results of the study showed that task has an impact on the learning of lexical bundles, which supported the involvement load hypothesis that higher involvement induced by the task was more beneficial to the learning of lexical bundles. © 2013 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.