The Frequency Effect Of Audio Input On Chinese EFL Learners' Use Of Past Tense In Their Story Reproduction

This study investigates the effect of audio input frequency on use of past tense by the senior students of English majors in their story reproduction. To be specific, this study addresses the two major questions: 1) What is the effect of audio input frequency on the general characteristics of the Chinese EFL learners'use of past tense in their story reproduction? 2) Along with the increase of audio input frequency, what are the differences in their use of past tense across the learners'different levels of proficiency?Spoken data employed in the present study were elicited from an experiment, in which 12 subjects were involved, and were divided into three groups of similar proficiency levels on the basis of the analysis of one-way ANOVA. Each group was subdivided into high- and low-achievers, according to their English proficiency level. Each group received different amount of listening in terms of frequency. In the experiment, all subjects were asked to listen to the story once and to retell it once on the 1st day. On the 2nd day, Groups 2 and 3 listened to the story for the second time and retold the story again. On the 3rd day, only Group 3 listened to and retold the story for the third time. As a result, the data yielded from the experiment consists of 4 retelling cases for each group based on the frequency of their listening. Detail analysis of 12 cases generated the following major findings:Firstly, occurrences of use of past tense undergo no significant changes in Chinese EFL learners'story reproduction, regardless of the amount of audio input they receive.Secondly, data analysis shows that there are three types of use of past tense: correct use, incorrect use and self-repaired use. The effect of input frequency is different with these three types. Specifically, the more input the learners receive, the more likely they are to have occurrences of correct use. But occurrences of incorrect use and self-repaired use are rather complex. No constant effect of input frequency is found on occurrences of incorrect use, probably because of learners'allocation of attentional resources for both form and meaning in their story reproduction. By contrast, occurrences of self-repaired use tend to drop along with the increase of audio input frequency, suggesting that input frequency produces an obvious effect on self-repaired use of past tense.Thirdly, cross-level comparisons indicate: (1) Occurrences of correct use enjoy a considerable increase in the high-level cases, while those in the low-levels take on a decreasing tendency; (2) In contrast, occurrences of incorrect use in the high-level cases drop drastically, whereas those in the low-levels notably increase. The oppositional distribution of both correct use and incorrect use suggests that input frequency produces an obvious effect on EFL learners'use of past tense, and that use of past tense may become a reasonably good indicator to Chinese EFL learners'linguistic proficiency. (3) The increase of audio input reduces the occurrences of self-repair in low-level learners'use of past tense, suggesting that the effect of input frequency is more evident for low-level learners than for high-levels, which partially confirms the claim made earlier in the first finding.Finally, both high- and low-level learners tend to misuse present tense as past tense in the type of incorrect use. Input frequency produces a positive effect on high-level learners'use of past tense in the sense that occurrences of mixed use of present tense with past tense are found to be on the decline. However, it is not the case with low-level learners. Beyond the researcher's presumption (that is, less mixed use of present tense with past tense would occur along with the increase of input frequency), more occurrences of mixed use are found with low-level learners, which suggests that amount of input does not produce any obvious effect on the improvement of use of past tense. The possible explanation for such a result is that low-level learners are not proficient enough to manipulate the balance between form and meaning.The findings from this study may have three pedagogical implications. In the first place, sufficient amount of input can help L2 learners to develop both meaning- and form-focused learning. In the second place, sufficient amount of input is necessary to secure both fluent and accurate oral production. Finally, frequency effect may also be used in promoting both linguistic skills and linguistic knowledge, through text memorization and imitation, for example.