An Application Of Input And Output Theories To Senior English Teaching

Second language acquisition is a whole process of input, absorption and output. In order to develop the non-speakers’language skills, the language input and output are supposed to be taken as a whole. In1980’s, linguist Steven Krashen presented the comprehensible input hypothesis, in which he held that language acquisition was produced by receiving amount of comprehensible input. Only when the sufficient comprehensible input is provided, the language skills and grammar knowledge will be promoted. In addition, linguist Merill Swain supplemented the input theory on the basis of a research on Canadians, who learned French. And then, she made a conclusion that language input is not the only one factor for the second language acquisition. She emphasized on the significance of the comprehensible language output. Additionally, scholars at home and abroad put forward some related teaching theories which include the concepts of language input and output, such as L2Acquisition Theory, Cognitive Assimilation Theory and so forth. They all stress on the importance of balanced relationship between language input and output. Therefore, English teachers need to enrich their language teaching methodology and apply it properly to English teaching.Based on the study of the input and output theories, the thesis tries to apply these theories to English learning in high school and research the significance of second language acquisition so as to improve learners’communicative competence and learning efficiency.The thesis carried out the empirical research on senior students in two parallel classes by applying the input and output theories and compared the effects between traditional language teaching and modern language teaching with input and output theories. The instruments used by the author were literature research, interviews, questionnaire and tests. The research lasted for about a semester and it confirmed the benefits of applying these theories, which can help senior students to improve their language skills.