The Effect Of Noticing Function Of Language Output In Promoting The Second Language Acquisition Of The Accuracy Of Linguistic Forms

Although output has long been considered an important part of language teaching and learning, whether and how it contributes to language learning are not seriously contemplated prior to Swain's (1985) important paper, in which the Output Hypothesis was first proposed. According to Swain's Output Hypothesis, comprehensible input alone is not sufficient for learners to fully develop their language proficiency. In order to master a language, both comprehensible input and comprehensible output are needed. Output is also an important causal factor in language learning.Swain's (1995) "Output Hypothesis" maintains that output performs three functions, in other words, 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". (Schmidt, 1994:17) 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 participants in this study were selected at random from the freshmen of a non-English class of Shannxi Normal University who were divided into the experimental group (EG:N=15) and the control group (CG:N=15) .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 10 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 participants noticed not only the form itself, but also the gaps between what they want to say and what they can say. On the contrary, the CG participants 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 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.These results lend support to Swain's Output Hypothesis and have several important pedagogical implications. First, the traditional viewpoints on output should be challenged. Output should be considered not only a sign of acquired knowledge, but also a sign of learning at work. English teachers should pay greater attention to the functions of output in language learning, provide students with more output activities and let them learn English by using it. Second, when designing an output task, teachers should take into consideration various factors, such as students' proficiency level, the task demand, etc. Only in this way can the potential noticing and learning function of output be maximized.