The Effect Of Input Enhancement And Output On The Acquisition Of English Relative Clauses For Chinese English Learners

Based on Input Hypothesis (Krashen, 1985), Output Hypothesis (Swain, 1993; 1995; 1998), Attention (Robinson, 1995; Schachter, 1998; Schmidt, 1990; 1995; 2001 ; Vanpatten, 1994), Noticing Hypothesis (Schmidt, 1990; 1995; 2001; Schmidt & Frota, 1986) and Levels and Depth of Processing (Craik and Lockhart, 1972) and on the empirical study of Izumi (2002), this dissertation makes an experimental study to investigate whether input enhancement and output alone or together can promote Chinese learners' acquisition of English relative clauses.In view of the purpose of this study, three hypotheses were proposed as:1) Output groups demonstrate greater acquisition of English relative clauses than nonoutput groups.2) Subjects receiving enhanced input demonstrate greater acquisition of English relative clauses than subjects receiving unenhanced input.3) +O+IE group demonstrates greater acquisition of English relative clauses than +O-IE group and -O+IE group.In this study, participants were 75 undergraduate students of non-English majors. They were divided into four experimental groups as group +O+IE (which was required to produce output and received enhanced input), group +O-IE (which was required to produce output and was exposed to regular, unenhanced input), group -O+IE (which received enhanced input without output) and group -O -IE (which received unenhanced input without any output requirement) and one control group randomly. The output groups were required to reconstruct the given input and the nonoutput groups were required to ask two sets of extension questions about the comprehension and the target form of the input during the experiment. After the experimental groups had accomplished their respective requirements, all subjects including the control group attended an immediate posttest to test the immediate acquisition of the target form and attended a delayed posttest to test the delayed effect.The major findings of the present study are briefly summarized as follows:1) The combination of the input enhancement and output was found favorable for learners' acquisition of English relative clauses.2) Output was found effective for Chinese learners to acquire English relative clauses when compared with input enhancement in isolation.