Effects Of Noticing Enhancement On The Learning Of Relative Clauses In The Continuation Task For High School Students

Wang Chuming(2012)proposed that the continuation task closely integrates input and output of language,and subtly combines the imitation and use of the language,which is an effective method to improve the efficiency of foreign language learning.A couple of studies have attested that the continuation task plays a key role in improving language learning,including complexity and accuracy of writing,the accuracy of past tense,the acquisition of second language vocabulary and grammar.Based on the context provided by the reading materials in the continuation task,the learner understands the meaning of language and imitates and applies the language forms through reviewing the reading material many times,thereby improving language learning effectiveness.But the learner’s imitation of language forms is based on noticing.Noticing plays a key role in the continuation task.Will the difference in noticing to language forms affect the learning effect of language forms? This study attempts to apply the continuation task to the learning of target form--relative clauses,and explores whether the difference in noticing to relative clauses will affect the learning effect of relative clauses.This study explores the different effects in the ordinary continuation task(without noticing enhancement)and the enhanced continuation task(with noticing enhancement)on learning relative clauses for high school students.This experiment specifically discusses the following three questions:(1)What are the differences in the different continuation tasks on using relative clauses for high school students?(2)What are the differences in the different continuation tasks on noticing and understanding relative clauses for high school students?(3)What are the different effects in the different continuation tasks on learning relative clauses for high school students?In this study,141 students in the eleventh grade in three classes of a senior high school in Jiangsu Province were involved.The experimentation process of this study includes“pre-test,treatment,post-test”.In the process of treatment,both classes A and B carried out the continuation task.The reading materials of class A had not been processed except the necessary Chinese annotations.While in the reading materials of Class B,the relative clauses were underlined and boldfaced,and it was clearly indicated that “Pay attention to these sentences that are boldfaced and underlined”.Class C is the control group without any treatment.The data obtained from compositions,grammar tests and questionnaires.The results showed that:(1)The enhanced continuation task does promote the output of relative clauses,but the accuracy of relative clauses in the enhanced continuation task is lower than that in the ordinary continuation task.(2)The enhanced continuation task does strengthen the noticing and understanding of relative clauses.(3)The enhanced continuation task does improve the learning effect of relative clauses.The learning effect of “SU” relative clause is better.This study proves that the enhanced continuation task can effectively promote the learning of relative clauses for high school students,so as to provide some enlightenment for English grammar teaching and learning.Notably,the application of the continuation task is mainly an auxiliary method to consolidate the knowledge by improving learners’ ability to use grammar but cannot replace other grammar teaching activities.In grammar teaching,teachers can apply the enhanced continuation task flexibly to facilitate learners’ grammar learning and improve the efficiency of grammar learning.