Chapter One Introduction
Research Background of the StudyVocabulary is regarded as the most important basis of acquisition of alanguage for it is relevant to mastery of all the other language skills. The deepdevelopment of global communication and cooperation and rapid progress of modemtechnique offer widely varying and advantageous platform for the English learners.Meanwhile, traditional concepts, strategies and patterns of vocabulary have beeninfluenced and changed. With the advanced requirement of the practical modeminternational situation in all fields and subjects, English for Specific Purposesemerged and has rapidly developed.Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition is a method of acquiring the vocabularywhich is relative to the intentional learning. In the intentional learning, learnersmemorize the vocabulary through intentionally reciting the vocabulary lists orcompleting certain vocabulary exercises to acquire the vocabulary knowledge.Meanwhile, in the incidental vocabulary acquisition, learners acquire the vocabularyincidentally through the process of completing other tasks, such as reading，communication，listening to English songs or watching movies. One unique factor ofincidental acquisition is the learners' attention which is not intentionally on thememorizing of the words (Laufer & Hulstijn，2001). In the incidental vocabularyacquisition, the learners' attention is mainly paid to the information which is deliveredby the words. Learners acquire certain relevant lexical knowledge although thelearning process does not involve the intentional learning activity (Nation，1990).Learning of the words is not the purpose of incidental vocabulary acquisition，but themethod of completing the tasks. The acquisition of vocabulary is just one kind ofby-product in the learning process. Learners constantly pay their main attention tovarying factors and characteristics of the lexical formation through intentionalacquisition. However，the practical usage of the specific words in communication isfrequently ignored. On the other side，learners may emphasize the specific meaning oftarget words in the context. Numerous researches investigated the incidentalvocabulary acquisition from the perspective which discussed the enhancing effect oftext-reading activity (Nagy, Anderson & Herman, 1985; Knight，1994; Mondria &Boer, 1991,1993; Laufer & Hulstijn，2001; Saragi，Nation & Meister，1978).In the area of second language acquisition，numerous theoretical and empiricalresearches have studied the different factors in the learning and teaching process.Based on the Depth of Processing Hypothesis, Involvement Load Hypothesis wasproposed and developed by Hulstijn & Laufer (2001) as a construct to integrate theresults of numerous researches of the depth of motivation，processing，attention andnoticing.As a major branch of ESP，Business English involves specific linguisticknowledge which is aimed at dealing with the different cases in trading fields，such asfinance, logistics and international trade. In the process of acquiring Business English,learners are supposed to master the language as a practical tool to be applied in thebusiness situations. Due to the specific background of the emergency and applicationof BE，its vocabulary has a variety of characteristics which may cause differenthindrances for the second language learners. Its vocabulary has a strong professionalrequirement, a wide coverage and is relatively complex. In the process of acquiringthe basic linguistic knowledge of this specific language, it is necessary for the learnersto actively involve the knowledge of financial business and western culturalbackground. The difficulty in memorizing this kind of special vocabulary inevitablyneeds effective learning strategies and teaching methods. Due to the theoretical andpractical background, teaching of the Business English encounters a challenging taskwhich forms a new teaching-and-leaming pattern. Beneath the pattern, learners caneffect
