The Role Of Output In Acquisition Of The Accuracy Of Linguistic Form In Second Language Acquisition

Swain's (1995)"Output Hypothesis"maintain that output performs three functions, namely, the"noticing/triggering"function, the"hypothesis-testing"function, and the"metalinguistic"function; the noticing function means the activity of producing the target language may prompt second language (L2) learners to recognize their linguistic problems and bring to their attention what they need to discover about the L2, and as a result, acquisition of the accuracy of linguistic form is facilitated.Based on"Noticing Hypothesis,"this study aims to investigate whether the language output can result in the acquisition of the accuracy of linguistic form. Schmidt's (1990, 1993, 1994, and 1995) Noticing Hypothesis argues,"Noticing is the necessary and sufficient condition for the conversion of input to intake for learning."In Schmidt's point of view, noticing needs awareness and focal attention from the learner, and subliminal learning cannot explain SLA processes. Schmidt also claims that"task demands are a powerful determinant of what is noticed". He also argues that the acquisition of the accuracy of linguistic form has close relationship with the noticing.This study attempts to answer the following two questions:1. Do output activities promote the noticing of linguistic form when relevant input is subsequently provided?2. Do these output-input activities lead to improved acquisition of the accuracy of the target linguistic form?The subjects in this study were selected at random from the freshmen of a non-English class of Jiangxi Normal University,who are divided into the experimental group (EG: N=20) and the control group (CG:N=20). The instruments of the present study included input text, output prompt, reading comprehension exercise, questionnaire, pretest and posttest. The hypothetical conditional in English was used as the target form. The quantitative data consisted of the underlining made by the subjects during the treatment, written production during the treatment and the test results. The qualitative data consisted of the recordings of the 40 questionnaires. Both Independent-samples t-test and paired-samples t-test were used in analyzing the quantitative data. The questionnaires were analyzed to testify the explanations made on the results of underlines, the data of EG output, and the test performance.The major findings of this study are summarized as follows:1. Although the underlining results of the present study did not show the EG's greater noticing of the hypothetical conditional, the results of the questionnaires revealed that the EG subjects noticed not only the form itself, but also the gap between their interlanguage and the target language. On the contrary, the CG subjects noticed only the form per se. As a result, the EG experienced more levels of noticing, which might help their final acquisition of the target form.2. After being exposed to the input of the model text, the EG made more attempts at producing the target grammar and achieved higher accuracy than they did in their first output. The EG made more accurate use of the target form than the CG did on the cloze and Chinese-English translation items of the posttest.