A Comparative Study Of The Effects Of Input-processing Instruction And Traditional Instruction-an Empirical Study On Chinese Middle School Students’ Acquisition Of English Definite Article The

This dissertation has investigated the different effects of inputprocessing instruction and traditional instruction on the acquisition ofEnglish definite article by Chinese junior high school students in GradeEight under a classroom learning condition. Based on Kranshen’s InputHypothesis (1981), Vanpatten proposes the Input-processing Instruction(1996), which aims at altering learners’ processing strategies and leadingthem to establish correct form-meaning connections. It involves explicitinformation of grammar structure and input-structured activities, andfocuses on comprehension practice. Traditional Instruction, which isoutput-oriented, involves target linguistic item explanation and outputpractice. It puts emphasis on production activities, which involve writtenand oral practice. In the present study, the effects of two differentinstructions on English define article are compared to discussed the rolesof input and output in second language acquisition.Subjects for the current study were chosen from middle schoolstudents in Grade Eight and107students from three different classeswere involved in the final experimental pool. These students wererandomly divided into two experimental groups and a control group. Oneof the experimental groups received input-processing instruction and theother one received traditional instruction. The control group did not receive any kind of instruction on the target item. Two weeks before thetreatments, students in three groups took a pretest. After that, students inthe two experimental groups received two different instructionsrespectively. Then an immediate test was assigned to the three groups,followed by a delay test two weeks later.Data of the present study were collected from comprehension tasksand production tasks in three tests (the pretest, the immediate test and thedelay test), and they were analyzed by SPSS17.0. The results havedemonstrated that the processing instruction was superior to thetraditional instruction in improving learners’ comprehension ability andproduction ability, which supported Vanpatten’s previous researches(1993and1995). It was also concluded from the current study that thetraditional instruction could facilitate comprehension and production ofEnglish definite article. Findings from the current study shed new light onthe roles of input and output in second language acquisition.