An Empirical Study Of Effects Of Noticing Hypothesis And Output Hypothesis On The Acquisition Of The English Attributive Clause

The acquisition of the English attributive clause is an important part of second language acquisition (SLA). However, it is difficult for most of learners to acquire it in China. On the basis of noticing hypothesis and output hypothesis, many researchers at home and aboard are engaging in the studies of the improvement in the acquisition of some grammatical forms such as English past hypothetical conditional or passive voice. Conversely, there are a few empirical researches concerning the acquisition of English attributive clauses. From the above discussion, the author hopes to offer some suggestions to college English learners and teachers by conducting this empirical study based on the noticing hypothesis and the output hypothesis.In this thesis, the author employs three instruments which are questionnaires, essay blank-filling tasks and three multiple-choice recognition tests. The empirical study aims at the improvement in the acquisition of English attributive clauses and has altogether 75 freshmen whose majors are agriculture and forestry economic management from the University of Jilin Agriculture. The research divides participants into three groups randomly: one control group and two experimental groups. Questionnaires are designed and handed out to the participants before the experimental study exploring learners'mastery of English attributive clauses and effects of noticing the target form. Three multiple-choice recognition tests including pretest, post-test I and post-test II are conducted in the study. The data collected from questionnaires and three multiple-choice recognition tests are compared and analyzed in terms of percentage and SPSS 16.0. There are three findings in this thesis. Firstly, it provides empirical evidence that noticing plays a key part in the processes of language input and output. In terms of language input, noticing can promote the conversion of input into intake. From the perspective of language output, the notice function of output can force learners to notice the gap between IL and TL, which improves language acquisition. Secondly, the thesis proves that output tasks can facilitate the acquisition of English attributive clauses. Finally, the study investigates effects of the duration of noticing on acquiring English attributive clauses and testifies the positive impacts of a long-term notice on acquiring the target form.Based on the noticing hypothesis and output hypothesis, this study of the acquisition of English attributive clauses gives us a new angle of the field of English acquisition and teaching. We should not only notice a target form and control the duration of noticing in language input, but also engage in suitable output tasks in language output to enhance the acquisition of the English attributive clause.