The Effect Of Text-based Online Chat On Noticing And Learning

Since Schmidt proposed Noticing Hypothesis in1990, the study on noticing has occupied a central place in the second language acquisition. At present, the study on noticing is inclined to be carried out in the SCMC and integrated with individuals. Meanwhile, the demand of college English learning in China is to study autonomously in the web-based environment.On the basis of theoretical framework of noticing hypothesis, interaction, constructivism, humanism, and cognitive theories, this study aims at the study of noticing in the text-based online chat. There are30sophomores participated in the present study, and they were paired according to their English proficiency. Participants communicated through QQ. After the fulfillment of each task, the chat logs were sent to the researcher online. In the process of chatting, if any linguistic item obstructs the communication, the negotiation for meaning was encouraged. The language episodes related to language are employed as the tool to test the noticing and the subsequent learning. These research questions are1) Do English learners notice the gap in their inter-language (i.e., produce LREs) during negotiation of meaning in the context of a text-based online chat room?2) What effect, if any, does incidental noticing have effects on subsequent English learning?3) What characteristics of LREs best predict English learning in this context?The results reveal that1) In SCMC, learners do notice these linguistic items which cause the difficulties in communication and then they initiate LREs to negotiate for meaning.2) The noticing of the linguistic items in SCMC is efficient to promote the English learning effect.3) In different models, the most effective LREs are different. In the suppliance model, LREs with the characteristics of successful uptake and heavy are most effective. In the correction model, LREs with the characteristics of timing, uptake and successful uptake are the most influential. In the spelling model, LREs of heavy and successful uptake are the strongest predicators.