The Effect of Task-Induced Involvement Load in Oral and Written Modalities on L2 Vocabulary Comprehension, and Production

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of reading and listening task-induced involvement load on L2 vocabulary comprehension and production. To this end, initially a sample of 180 Iranian B.A. level students majoring in TEFL and translation studies at Imam Khomeini International University (IKIU) and Islamic Azad University of Garmsar were selected. After the administration of a subset of the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), and the exclusion of the students who were not present in all treatment sessions, a sample of 120 participants remained. The researchers asked the participants of this study to perform three different tasks each involving a different involvement load index for six consecutive sessions. After the treatment period, the participants were immediately exposed to vocabulary comprehension and production tests. The data were analyzed using six separate independent samples T-test procedures. The results suggested the superiority of reading task-induced modality over listening task-induced modality on L2 vocabulary comprehension and production. The results of the present study may have implications for teachers, learners, and syllabus designers.