The Role of Language Glossing in a Rooted Theory: The Involvement Load Hypothesis

This study builds on the innovative construct of taskinduced involvement. It investigates different first and second language glossing in “involvement load hypothesis”. In order to do our study, 66 learners from two different English institutes were classified into two major high and low proficient groups based on Nelson Proficiency Test. Among them 22 low proficient students were randomly assigned to two different subgroups in order to complete two different types of tasks with different language glossing. The behaviors of the two groups in the immediate and delayed posttests did not confirm the predictions of involvement load hypothesis. Although the second task had a higher involvement index, no sign of superiority was observed in its performance. The study suggests that the predictions of involvement load hypothesis need to be more finely grained especially when the tasks have different language glossing.