A Study On The Effect Of Feedback On The Acquisition Of Formulaic Sequences

Based on noticing theory in cognitive psychology, and utilizing the effect of feedback on noticing after language output, this study aims to investigate the facilitating effect of feedback on the acquisition of formulaic sequences. In this research, the independent variable is feedback and the dependent variable is the acquisition of formulaic sequences.The present study wants to answer the following research questions: 1) Can feedback (teacher feedback and peer feedback) facilitate students'accurate use of formulaic sequences in specific context? 2) Can feedback (teacher feedback and peer feedback) facilitate students'accurate use of formulaic sequences in students'writing?The purpose of this experiment is to find and analyze whether feedback has a facilitating effect on the acquisition of formulaic sequences. There are, totally, 60 participants, who are sophomores majoring in urban planning, from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Chongqing University. The teaching experiment had lasted for four weeks. In order to make comparison of the results under different teaching conditions, in this experiment, all the subjects were divided into two groups in accordance with their English scores of last semester: experimental group one (Group one) and experimental group two (Group two). There were 30 students in each group. In the teaching process of formulaic sequences, the students in the group one were provided peer and teacher feedback on the significance and proper usage of the target formulaic sequences, especially after the writing practice. Students in the group two, in contrast, were not given such kind of feedback. Still, in order to clarify whether feedback has a facilitating effect on the acquisition of formulaic sequences pretests and posttests were adopted. In addition, to guarantee the accuracy and effectiveness of the data, the author used SPSS 15.0 to analyze the obtained data. Also, after the posttests, there was an interview conducted among 12 students chosen randomly from the group one and group two. The interview aimed to have a better understanding of their formulaic sequences'learning, and tried to find out whether providing relevant feedback to the students could facilitate their acquisition of formulaic sequences.The results showed that the way of providing relevant feedback, especially after students'output, is better than that of no-feedback in the aspects of students'acquisition of formulaic sequences and improving accurate usage of them. Additionally, the author conducted an interview after the posttests. Most of the interviewees showed positive attitude to the approach with feedback, and would like to be continually under the guidance of it in the future.In conclusion, feedback, as an important part of second language acquisition, was incorporated into the instruction of formulaic sequences, which can facilitate the acquisition of formulaic sequences. Therefore, for the purpose of improving the acquisition of formulaic sequences, teachers can consciously design and provide feedback in different forms. In the end, implications on further research were also given in this thesis.