A study of the components of the involvement load hypothesis

: how involvement load should be allocated to "Search" and "Evaluation"

Abstract

To examine the effectiveness of word-focused tasks in promoting incidental word learning, Laufer and Hulstijn proposed the Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) in 2001. It is a motivational-cognitive construct of involvement, consisting of three components: need, search and evaluation. The combination of degrees of prominence of these three factors constitutes the involvement load of a task and determines its effectiveness in promoting word learning. The greater the involvement load, the more effective the task is (Laufer and Hulstijn, 2001). After identifying that the ILH needs re-examination on its allocation of involvement loads to search and evaluation, an experiment with five word-focused tasks was carried out with 274 advanced intermediate ESL learners. The subjects were divided into different groups with each group assigned different tasks. In addition to performing the task, some subjects reported their thinking processes either during or after the completion of the tasks. The groups which did not report their thinking processes were tested both immediately and one week later for their acquisition of the target words. The results of the study give partial support to the ILH, as writing tasks are found to be significantly more effective than reading plus inferencing and reading plus cloze exercises. However, results that are inconsistent with the ILH are also found. Reading plus dictionary consultation proves to be significantly more effective than reading plus inferencing and reading plus cloze exercises, even though they induce the same overall involvement load. Writing a composition is significantly more effective than writing sentences even though the same involvement load is induced. Such results are explained in terms of theories of the degree of elaboration, connectionist models and information organization. In terms of these results and explanations, an Optimal Involvement Load Hypothesis is proposed. It allocates two degrees of prominence of involvement load to "search" (moderate and strong) and three to "evaluation" (moderate, strong, and very strong). Compared to Laufer and Hulstijn's (2001) ILH, the proposed hypothesis integrates a more comprehensive theoretical foundation, sets more explicit criteria for involvement load assignment and has more precise predictions about task effectiveness.

Date of Award	15 Feb 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Alice CHAN (Supervisor)