A Study On Input-output Class Activities In Chinese Language Course In Australian High Schools

The present study emphasizes the process from input to output in second language acquisition.The different viewpoints on the roles of input and output,held by Krashen's input hypothesis and Swain's output hypothesis,might be solved by Vygostsky's sociocultural theory.Meanwhile,class activity designs are supposed to provide enough opportunities for learners to notice the linguistic features of the input,and the form and meaning mappings of the output.This thesis takes the Chinese course in a public high school in Perth,West Australia as an example,for researching the input-output class activities based on Engestrom's model of human activity.Activity theory,which has its origins in the Vygotskyian Cultural historical activity theory,provides a language to describe what people do in context.The activity triangle model incorporates the Subjects,Object and Community components,Tools,Rules and Division of labor.Activity theory has emerged as a suitable framework for studying human practices and analyzing social and cultural issues.Using the activity theory as the analytic framework,we have built a system of input and output activities in the Chinese class.According to the theory,we have analyzed the activity system at three levels:activity level,action level,operation level.In this thesis we focus on following questions:Who are the learners and why do they learn?What do they learn and what is the outcome?How do they learn?And how does the system work?At activity level,we describe how the six components work in the system.Students who choose Chinese as their language other than English course are the Subjects component.The Object component,which reflects the motivational or purposeful nature of human activity,is regarded as the outlines of Chinese language class.The Community component of the model includes teachers,teaching assistants and group members in pair work or group activities.The Tools can be used to improve learners' motivation and interest,such as online games,card resources and worksheets.The Rules,which play important roles in the procession of input and output activities,can either be explicit or implicit.The Division of Labor Component reveals that the subjects operate in an environment of social and cultural context.At action level,we explain the goal and outcome of this system based on the school outlines and the West Australian curriculum.Their language learning goal is broaden students' horizons to include the personal,social,and employment opportunities that an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world presents.At operation level,the role of contradiction is revealed.We have discussed the contradiction of members in the community,the procession of carrying rules,and the conflicts between the expectation of subject and the outcome.Contradictions,which often regarded as sources of change and development,not only generate disturbances and conflicts,but also innovative attempts to change the activity system.The following results are achieved:This activity system of Chinese course in high school in Australia works well.And an activity system is a community of multiple points of view.And we suggest that it should be improved by helping teachers there adapt to the teaching environment in Australia schools,both in teaching skills and attitude;and learning to consider language teaching as a way to develop students' multi-cultural capacity and communication skills.