Input And The Outcome Of Foreign Language Teaching

The target language input plays a significant role in the process and outcome of foreign language teaching and learning. Many factors govern the adequacy of language input. The primary goal of this thesis is to study the factors governing the target language input and their impact on FL teaching and learning. Through the brief survey of input researches at home and abroad and the close observation of major accesses to English language input in our country, this thesis discusses in detail the quality of the language input the Chinese FL learners are exposed to: teacher talk, the content and organization of English teaching materials, the other accesses to the input a Chinese learner can possibly have, and the relationship between input and output, i.e. between receptive and productive skills. The results and findings of an empirical study on the current input are analyzed, which reveal the following facts: learners' very limited exposure to authentic language input, lack of flexible language interaction, separation of receptive and productive skills in the learning process. Suggestions are given at the end of the thesis, including: improving the input quality, changing the active participation of language activities, which will lead to the improvement of learning outcome.