{"title":"The Effects of Top-down and Bottom-up Cognitive Processes in Chinese EFL Learners’ Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition","authors":"Yao Fan","doi":"10.5539/elt.v16n12p91","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This study analyzed the correlation between the incidental acquisition of vocabulary using different processing strategies during reading by 56 native Chinese-speaking students studying English at a university in China. Based on top-down and bottom-up cognitive processes, the study discussed the lexical processing strategies employed by the participants in analyzing unknown words. Based on introspective data collected during think-aloud and the subsequent vocabulary retention test results, the researcher explored the acquisition effects of different strategies. The results indicated that the bottom-up processing strategy showed better acquisition effects than the top-down strategy. Finally, the researcher discussed the reasons why Chinese college students performed better with the bottom-up cognitive approach in incidental vocabulary acquisition while reading, attempting to provide pedagogical implications for L2 vocabulary teaching in China.","PeriodicalId":508940,"journal":{"name":"English Language Teaching","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"English Language Teaching","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v16n12p91","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study analyzed the correlation between the incidental acquisition of vocabulary using different processing strategies during reading by 56 native Chinese-speaking students studying English at a university in China. Based on top-down and bottom-up cognitive processes, the study discussed the lexical processing strategies employed by the participants in analyzing unknown words. Based on introspective data collected during think-aloud and the subsequent vocabulary retention test results, the researcher explored the acquisition effects of different strategies. The results indicated that the bottom-up processing strategy showed better acquisition effects than the top-down strategy. Finally, the researcher discussed the reasons why Chinese college students performed better with the bottom-up cognitive approach in incidental vocabulary acquisition while reading, attempting to provide pedagogical implications for L2 vocabulary teaching in China.