Second Language Acquisition Of English Relative Extraposition By Chinese EFL Learners

This study investigates Chinese EFL learners' knowledge of relative extraposition in English and the extent to which explicit instruction contributes to learners' accuracy in the formation of English relative extraposition. Specifically, the study addresses: (a) whether Chinese EFL learners' knowledge of the target structure is well developed; (b) whether explicit approach in which formal instruction is conducted, leads to better results in receptive and productive skills than that of exposure-only approach; (c) whether explicit instruction helps EFL learners achieve native speaker accuracy and; (d) whether the effects of explicit instruction last longer than those of exposure-only one. These questions were examined in a controlled experimental study. In experiment one, three different groups of learners took part in two elicitation tasks which were used to collect learners' written production of the target structure. In experiment two, the lower-intermediate learners were divided into two groups, in order to see the effects of different language treatments in different time phases. The experimental group was given ten days' explicit instruction to the target structure, i.e., they received the target structure through rule explanation, sentence combination and decomposition. While the control group only encountered the target sentences in the reading materials, i.e., they learned the structure implicitly. Learners' performance on sentence combination task and acceptability judgement task was assessed on a pre-post-delayed test basis. Comparisons were made between these two groups and among the three tests conducted on each group as well. The major findings are: (a) Chinese EFL learners' knowledge of the target structure was limited, although it reflected some developmental progression, suggesting that limited target language exposure is not enough to help learners comprehend the complex sentence structure; (b) those engaged in explicit instruction outperformed those only exposed to the same input, although both approaches had immediate effects in improving learners' grammatical accuracy; (C) the effects of explicit instruction tended to last longer, in at least five weeks; (d) learners preferred to produce restrictive relative clauses rather than produce relative extraposition after they had learned the two kinds of clauses. This study also presents errors made by all proficiency levels of learners. It seemed that learners made errors systematically; what's more, they tended to make errors in subject-modifying relatives than the object-modifying ones. These results are interpreted as evident that explicitinstruction which aims to raise learners' attention in classroom can not only bring immediate effects to learners' grammatical accuracy, but also produce long-term effects to help learners in their language development. Learners are "ready" for the target structure and second language instruction does make a difference. However, the degree of success in second language acquisition may be determined by many variables. Thus explicit instruction should be pursued in combination with plenty of practice and implicit language exposure. Second language teachers should also choose teachable materials and set more reasonable learning objectives and principles for error evaluation so as to facilitate second language acquisition.