The Role Of Writing In The Acquisition Of Target Language Forms

It was not until Merrill Swain proposed the Comprehensible Output Hypothesis that output began to receive serious attention of SLA researchers. Without denying the role of input, Swain maintains that there are three functions that output performs, namely, the noticing/triggering function, the hypothesis-testing function, and the metalinguistic function. The present study mainly concerns the noticing/triggering function, which means by producing the target language the L2 learners can be prompted to recognize the differences between the target language and their interlanguage, then it stimulates L2 acquisition by forcing L2 learners to process TL syntactically.The present study aims to investigate two research questions to: First, will output activities in the form of writing promote noticing of the formal elements of the input? second, will output activities in the form of writing lead to better mastery of target language forms than comprehension-focused activities?90 sophomores were selected randomly from students of Grade 2006 in CCBUPT, and they were assigned to three groups: two experimental groups (EG 1 and EG 2) and one control group (CG). One EG was treated by output activities, the other EG engaged in comprehensive-based activities, and the control group performed nothing during the empirical phase. After the EGs had accomplished their tasks respectively, an immediate post was delivered to them to see the treatment effects. Three months later, all the subjects including the control group attended a delayed posttest to test the effects of acquisition.Results of the present study suggest that: output in the form of writing can promote noticing and enhance the acquisition of target language forms; it is important to maintain the effectiveness of output activities; target structure per se influences the effects of output activities; it is important to control L2 learners' otherwise scattered attention in output activities if the aim is to draw learners' attention to a specific form and help them to acquire it; reading comprehension questions can draw L2 learners' attention to target forms when properly designed...