Explicit Learning And Form-Meaning Connections In Second Language Acquisition

SLA is the learning of constructions that relate form and meaning. But these form-meaning relations are probabilistic. Without appropriate instruction, L2 learners establish these associative mappings between form and meaning unconsciously in processing input (implicit learning). Under unconscious circumstance, L2 learners pay more attention to meanings or forms which influence understanding of meanings. For saving cognition resources, the forms which have no resistance to meaning understanding or have no salience per se will seldom be processed. Acquisition of form-meaning connections (FMCs) in SLA is comprehensible input-dependent. If L2 learners process input unconsciously, input fail to become intake in SLA, in turn, the establishment of complete and robust FMCs is impossible. That L2 learners are instructed to notice forms feature will facilitate the acquisition of FMCs. Explicit learning is a more conscious operation of input in order to enlarge or enrich intake. Instruction and output is the process of FMCs-focus.The correlational study in the present thesis aims to verify the significant function of explicit learning (or instructed output tasks) in the acquisition of form (e.g., hypothetical conditional construction in English) in SLA. A total 50 university students participated in the study. The experimental group was required to write an essay and reconstruct a passage. The controlled group did a comprehension task with the same materials. In the implementation of two output tasks (i.e., an instructed writing task and essay reconstruction), the study set out to investigate whether these output tasks can help L2 learners in China notice and acquisition FMCs in SLA. The major findings of the study are: (1) There was no...