Effects Of Different Input Conditions In Reading On The Learning Of Collocations

This thesis aims to investigate the effects of enriched and enhanced input conditions on the learning of collocations and their influence across proficiency levels.The comparison was made under two particular conditions.Under the enriched condition,the target structure occurred as frequently as five times.Under the enhanced condition,the target structure was manipulated in bold typeface.A total of 156 non-English majors from a Chinese university participated in this study.The participants were required to read passages with ten target collocations that were manipulated in two different ways,five in bold typeface(enhanced input)and five occurring repeatedly five times across the passages(enriched input).A surprise vocabulary test that was made up of four tests measuring receptive and productive knowledge of form of the target collocations and form and meaning of the collocations was administered after the treatments.After the test,eight students were interviewed about the reading process.Quantitative and qualitative analyses were adopted in the present study,yielding the following major findings.First,enriched input had a significantly better effect than enhanced input in promoting knowledge of collocation in this experimental setting.But effects of the two aspects of collocational knowledge(form,form and meaning)at two levels of’sensitivity(receptive and productive knowledge)were different.There was a significant difference between enriched and enhanced input conditions in productive knowledge of form and form&meaning,and receptive knowledge of form,while no significant difference in terms of receptive knowledge of form and meaning.It was also found that more receptive collocational knowledge was gained than productive knowledge and more collocational knowledge on form than on form&meaning.Second,for high achievers,enriched input had a significantly better effect than enhanced input in promoting productive knowledge of form and form&meaning,and receptive knowledge of form;for low achievers,there was generally no significant difference between,enriched and enhanced input conditions in different aspects of knowledge of collocations mentioned in this study except in terms of productive knowledge of form&meaning.The results also demonstrated that the two groups significantly differed from each other in productive knowledge of form and receptive knowledge of form&meaning under this experimental condition.The present study has both theoretical and pedagogical implications.Theoretically,it partly affirmed the effectiveness of noticing,an important notion in Schmidt’s s noticing hypothesis in learning.However,the result of the interview that consciousness was not necessary also ran counter to the noticing hypothesis that noticing was the necessary and sufficient condition for language learning.Pedagogically,the results invited text designers to use awareness-raising techniques to facilitate the learning of collocations in extensive reading.