Input Theory And Its Implications For The Teaching Of Chinese To Foreigners

Stephen D. Krashen has proposed a series of explanations for second language acquisition since the late 1970s, the famous one being the input Hypothesis. According to the input hypothesis: the acquisition of second language depends on two aspects: one is that the learner must accept sufficient comprehensible input; the other is that the learner must be emotionally open to input. Comprehensible input and low affective filter will make sure that the learner can acquire the target language. There have been a number of critiques of the input hypothesis since it comes into being. Different scholars in the field of second language acquisition proposed different opinions of the input hypothesis based on their own teaching practice and research, such as Swain's output hypothesis and Long's the Interaction Hypothesis and Gass's integrative model on input and output. The theories above constitute the main content of the first and the second chapter.The third chapter mainly discusses the sources of language input. There are five parts in this chapter. The characteristics of ideal input include: comprehensibility, interesting and relevant, not grammatically sequenced and sufficiency. Then the author discusses the sources of language input in the next four parts, include: foreigner talk, teacher talk, interlanguage and textbook; analyses their positive functions in the teaching of Chinese to Foreigners.The fourth chapter consists of an experiment. The author participated in the pre-service and in-service training of Peace Corps China in 2006 as a Language/Cultural Facilitator. The program contains ten weeks extensive Chinese training for the volunteers. It's an immersion program. All the volunteers studied Chinese in the morning of the workdays and lived in the host family arranged by the program managers. After the training, they were tested by experienced Chinese teachers and they had to pass intermediate low level in spoken Chinese. At the end of the Chinese immersion program, their Chinese proficiency was not as satisfactory as expected. After the training, the author thought about it deeply together with input theory. At the same time, a survey was given by the author to investigate the input and output during the training. There are four parts in the survey, include: personal factors of the trainees; learning materials; classroom teaching and after class activities. After the analysis of the results, the author concludes: the trainees didn't receive enough comprehensible input and the quality of their language input is not high.In the end, the author proposed the implications of the input theory for the teaching of Chinese to Foreigners. The main points rest upon the sufficiency of comprehensible input and the efficiency of output, with the hope that overseas students can learn Chinese more quickly and successfully.