Effects of Task-Induced Involvement Load and Working Memory on Korean High School Students’ Second Language Vocabulary Learning

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of task-induced involvement load and working memory on Korean high school English learners' vocabulary acquisition and long-term retention. Sixty-six students were divided into three groups and experienced three different tasks that differed in terms of their involvement load: 1) gap-filling, 2) unscrambling sentences, and 3) writing original sentences. Each group took a post-vocabulary test comprising two subtests―form recognition and meaning recognition―immediately after the treatment and one week later. Results showed that the students who performed the task of writing original sentences, which was assumed to have the highest involvement load, gained the highest scores in the immediate meaning recognition test. Further, working memory of the students had a weak but statistically significant correlation with the short-term learning of both form and meaning and the long-term retention of meaning. More detailed findings are presented along with suggestions for pedagogy and future research.