Examining the Role of Task-Induced Involvement in L2 Lexical Inferencing

Given the essential role of vocabulary, L2 researchers have always been trying to come up with effective tasks to enlarge L2 learners’ vocabulary. The effectiveness of such tasks is dependent on different factors. Hulstijn and Laufer (2001), among others, argue that the degree of cognitive processing required for vocabulary items can be a decisive factor in their learning. Based on this premise, the present study set out to examine whether learners would make use of different lexical inferencing strategies at different processing levels of involvement. To do so, nine EFL learners were randomly assigned to one of three groups, with each group receiving a different version of a text with unknown words inducing different degrees of involvement. The participants were required to infer the meaning of unknown words and verbalize their thoughts. The results of think-aloud protocol analysis adduced the argument that learners’ use of inferencing strategies varies significantly across different degrees of involvement. Moreover, the type of text influences lexical inferencing success.