Output-oriented L2 Vocabulary Acquisition: A Quasi-experimental Research

Input and Output are two essential factors for successful L2 learning. Input refers to the language materials that L2 learners receive through their exposure to target language environment,especially through listening and reading; while Output is defined as the actual production and use of the target language,including speaking and writing. Since Krashen proposed his Input Hypothesis, language input has become the focus of second language acquisition studies, attracting many applied linguists' attention. However, with too much attention paid to the input, the role of output is, to some degree, neglected or minimized. The imbalance of the attention devoted to the two necessary elements had not been changed until the mid-1980s. Since then, more and more researchers have paid increasing attention to the importance and significance of output in foreign language teaching and learning, which can be considered as a shift of attention from the role of input to that of output. As a result, successive observations and insights have been obtained in diverse researches and studies of output. Among these, Merrill Swain's Comprehensible Output Hypothesis is the most prominently elaborated and persuasively systematic. In her research based on Canadian learners learning L2 in immersion classes, Swain concluded that comprehensible input is not the sole factor for successful L2 learning, arguing that output serves an indispensable learning purpose. Based upon previous studies on Input and Output theories, this thesis attempts to present the assumptions that the process of L2 vocabulary acquisition can also seek for theoretical and methodological help from these two hypotheses. Comprehensible output plays at least an equally important role in language acquisition. During the course of second language vocabulary acquisition (SLVA), a much higher profitable effect can be attained by means of the mutual action of these two hypotheses; hence a more successful vocabulary acquisition can be assured. As the chief concern, since there has been a lack of quantitative studies that either support or refute the Pushed Output Hypothesis, this thesis aims to, by means of quasi-experimental research designs, probe into the effectiveness of pushed output approach in enhancing L2 vocabulary acquisition. The present study attempts to establish baseline quantitative data on the effectiveness of pushed output, especially its role in helping learners to acquire a receptive knowledge of new lexical items compared with other traditional approaches to teaching and learning new words. Namely, the comparison is carried out via the combination of comprehension reading tasks (an input-based approach), classroom activity worksheets (a task-based approach), and putting the new or key words to use by making sentences (an output-based approach). In a carefully controlled pretest-posttest experimental study, 122 non-English major students from two classes of Henan University were requested to involve in a series of classroom activities that fully embodied the features of the three approaches, to acquire 10 new words picked out from a sample essay. Test papers distributed to the participants were collected immediately when the class was over; while the analysis of data mainly depended on KR20 formula and Fisher statistic. Results indicated that regardless of their sharply different processing level, more words were learned by the pushed-output condition. Hence, the prominent effect of Output-based vocabulary acquisition was proved. Meanwhile, it was exactly up to the mustard of what the assumptions had claimed in the previous part, and it was much applicable to afford theoretical and data-based underpinnings for L2 vocabulary acquisition. Finally, since we all know that learning a word doesn't merely stop at the stage of knowing the general senses of it, putting it to practical use would ensure a better learning and enhance a longer memory. Hence pedagogic implications of Output Hypothesis are discussed. The following is the framework of this thesis, which co...