The Input Theory And Its Application To College English Teaching: An Experiment

In Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theory, "input" is considered one of the key external factors greatly influencing the learners' acquisition rate and quality, and therefore input research has been receiving increasing attention in recent years. Among the large amounts of input researches, Krashen's Input Hypothesis is perhaps the most influential one, from which most of the input and interaction studies have developed. The Input Hypothesis claims that in order for second language acquisition to proceed, learners must be exposed to target language data which contains language structure that are beyond their current level, which Krashen calls "i+1". In moving from stage "i" to stage "i+l", it is necessary for the acquirer to understand input that contains "i+1". Despite the significant influence the Input Hypothesis has had on SLA studies since its inception, it has received strong criticism, the most direct opposition is from Swain who put forward Output Hypothesis in 1985. Swain argues that people acquire new language when they attempt to produce a message. She identifies a number of different roles for output in the sense of enhancing fluency and accuracy, and maintains the position that comprehensible output is also necessary for L2 acquisition.While lots of input researches have evidenced that additional reading and writing promote acquisition, very few empirical studies have been done to compare the effects of reading and writing upon learners' writing proficiency. Based on the theories of Krashen's Input Hypothesis and Swain's Output Hypothesis, this thesis attempts, through a teaching experiment, to find answers to the following questions: Do large amounts of comprehensible input and increased output training affect the learners' output performance? If they do, which of the treatments is more effective?This thesis falls into five divisions. The author first briefly reviews therecent input research regarding Krashen's language acquisition theory and his Input Hypothesis in particular, and the relative researches, such as Long's Interaction Hypothesis, Swain's Output Hypothesis and Jeremy Harmer's Balanced Activity Approach, etc. Related researches in this direction in our country is also reviewed. The author also analyzes the problems existing in input research. Then the thesis goes on to describe a teaching experiment, lasting for two terms, in which Krashen's input theory and Swain's output theory are adapted to Chinese college learning context. The subjects of the experiment are three classes of college freshmen of non-English majors, fifty students in each class. Two classes are made experimental classes and the other the control class. With all the other variables strictly controlled, the two experimental classes are required to do some additional after-class reading and writing respectively to increase their comprehensible input and strengthen their writing training. Their composition scores in the regular final exams are compared and analyzed with the help of the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) +11.0. The conclusions drawn are: (1) Students' writing proficiency is able to be promoted by means of increasing the amount of comprehensible reading or strengthening writing practice. (2) In the long run. increasing comprehensible reading is more effective compared with more writing practice. Following this part is an analysis of the experiment findings, and an explanation of the underlying reason from the perceptive of cognitive and psychological linguistics. Finally, the thesis comes to a discussion of the pedagogical implications for Chinese college English teaching from the following four aspects: (1) The input materials, whether in listening or written form, should be comprehensible and a little above the students' present level; (2) Input is supposed to be sufficient and varied to facilitate language learning; (3) Language teachers should try to lower the students' affective filter by creating relaxed class circumstances, helping the students to reduce their anxiety, gain self-confiden...