An empirical study on productive vocabulary acquisition under hypertext reading

Abstract

This research aims to examine the effect of hypertext reading on productive vocabulary acquisition, and investigate how other influential factors mainly including students' English proficiency and their use of vocabulary learning strategies affect the outcome of productive vocabulary acquisition. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are adopted in this study. A test and a questionnaire survey were conducted. Two parallel classes of English major, who are all sophomores, are randomly selected as the control group and the experimental group respectively. According to the results of analysis, some conclusions are drawn. First, though participants can acquire productive vocabulary both in traditional reading and hypertext reading, hypertext reading is more effective. Second, the effectiveness of hypertext reading in productive vocabulary acquisition is more significant for learners of extremely high/low English proficiency than those of intermediate level. Third, vocabulary learning strategies that are employed influence the effect of hypertext reading on productive vocabulary acquisition.