The Effects of Inference-Training and Text Repetition on Chinese Learners' Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition While Listening

Abstract

This article reports a study of the effects of inference training and text repetition on Chinese university students’ performance of two listening information-transfer tasks that provided built-in measures of their comprehension and opportunities for the acquisition of ten unknown target words embedded in the listening texts. One group just listened to the text once, a second group three times, while the third listened three times and received inference-training support. The results showed that text repetition had a positive effect on both comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. However, the inference-training had no additional effect. The study lends support to the findings of previous studies which have shown that repeated opportunities to process oral input have a positive effect on listening comprehension and extends these studies by showing that it also facilitates incidental vocabulary acquisition.