Learning English As A Foreign Language--Form The Perspective Of Input Processing

This study introduces a new notion of language learning as a cognitiveprocess of input processing. Different from the traditional method, thismodel emphasizes the students' own efforts in the process of learning.Specifically, students are encouraged to follow the cognitive notion ofobserving, hypothesizing and experimentation.The subjects are 62 Chinese peaking students at Xidian University.The language learning environment peculiar to the Chinese students isbriefly described in the introduction. Traditionally, Chinese studentslearn English words and grammar not in meaningful contexts but in a styleof meaningless forms and isolated words.In the study here, the two groups (experimental and control) receiveconsciousness raising and noticing input ased instruction and traditionalproduction ased instruction respectively. The students in theexperimental group are trained to make full use of the reading materialand to turn it from input to intake by noticing and focusing on form. Afterthe treatment, two tests are administered to see what gains have takenplace.The results of the study indicate that the instruction that emphasizesstudents' noticing and intake works better than the traditional grammarteaching. The study concludes that, in this case, noticing the form inmeaningful contexts makes a difference in students' learning of a secondlanguage.