The Impact Of Recitation And Strategic Recitation Training On The Complexity Of ESL Productivity By SLA Learners

Recitation,the act of repeating aloud or declaim(a poem or passage)from memory before an audience,has long been assumed to be one of the effective SLA learning methods that provide authentic linguistic material input and promote language learning performance.However,nowadays,the validity of this traditional SLA teaching method has been substantially challenged and weakened due to the diversification of assistant techniques utilized in SLA classroom.In addition,SLA learners and their instructors also prefer those emerging language acquisition techniques.In light of this trend,it remains a question whether we should insist on the fundamental status of recitation as an SLA acquisition activity.When conflicts in the arrangement of learning methods occur,can we achieve reconciliation or balance? This thesis aims to provide evidence to argue where the value of recitation activity lies.It also aims to establish a feasible way to properly apply other learning methods including speaking,listening,translation and mind-mapping which are considered to reinforce comprehension of linguistics material and supported by SLA theories to design a refined recitation activity,that is,a strategic recitation training,expecting an improved language acquisition outcome.In particular,a test and analysis of the value of recitation activities will be conducted in this empirical study.This research is based on a teaching experiment involving thirty experimental subjects selected from Grade Eight in one same school who pick English as their targeted second language.In this experiment,the subjects receive target and directed recitation activities and are required to accomplish certain amount of recitation content.The goal of this experiment is to test the implications that recitation imposes on complexity of second language productivity.Based on an assessment of recitation performance,fifteen of the total subjects are evaluated to produce effective and authentic SLA outcome.The language material submitted by the selected 15 subjects are arranged to take statistical detection and analyses.The index of measurement ismade up of relevant variables from lexical and syntactic complexity.In this experiment,the subjects are divided into three different groups correspondingly assigned with no recitation task,recitation without any assistance and recitation based on strategic recitation training.It aims to demonstrate two outcomes from two sets of comparisons,the one conducted between the group with and without compulsory recitation task as well as the one conducted between the group with and without certain strategic recitation training added to recitation task.This whole study lasts for almost half a year.In the beginning of the second semester of their eighth grade,this experiment is about to be designed and the participants are going to be selected.The distribution of recitation assignments in the experiment is carried out in November of 2019.Within two months,the subjects are required to complete all the designed recitation tasks or strategic training.Before the deadline,the subjects are arranged to take part in a recitation test which evaluates them as whether or not qualified in reciting the target language material.Only when they meet the standard in this evaluation test,they can participate in a writing test.Next,the language output is collected from the writing test.Meanwhile,certain language complexity standards are established for the assessment of language output respectively provided by the three types of ESL learners.The language complexity in the assessment breaks down into vocabulary and syntactic complexity,ranging from lexical diversity to syntactic density.When detecting detailed values of complexity variables,two professional textual analyzers are utilized in vocabulary and syntactic measurement.In the following statistical analysis which is designed to present the results of two sets of comparisons,statistics processing software and corresponding techniques for analysis are involved to keep validity of this research,including a significance analysis and standard deviation analysis,etc.Next,a simple interview aiming to obtain related knowledge from the subjects is designed to be conducted at the end of this semester.As a conclusion,the collected evidence obtained from comparative analyses of complexity outcome in this research supports that recitation assignment mainly boosts lexical complexity of language output in writing.By contrast,syntactic complexity cannot be significantly improved due to recitation activities.Even though ESL learning techniques including listening,speaking,translation and mind-mapping are applied inrecitation training,explicit improvement is mainly detected in lexical sophistication rather than in syntactical complexity.Based on the experimental outcome,it is suggested that recitation and strategic recitation training be applied with specific direction considering their particular value.