| From the early grammar translation method, the audio-lingual method, etc. to thenatural teaching method, the communicative approach, and the task-based teachingmethod, etc., grammar teaching got little process. Since Schmidt proposed NoticingHypothesis, many researchers have started to pay attention to the role of noticing insecond language acquisition. Therefore, the implicit teaching method “inputenhancement†that Sharwood Smith proposed (such as textual enhancement, inputfrequency, etc.), which can promote learners’ attention to language forms, has drewthe attention of many researchers. However, little could be found about the role ofinput enhancement in the noticing and acquisition of language forms in the domesticliteratures. There are also fewer researches that were conducted from both theperspectives of textual enhancement and input frequency. The subjects of mostresearches are mostly college students. Therefore, on the theoretical basis of Long’s(1991)"Focus-on-form" and Schmidt’s (1995)"Noticing Hypothesis", the purpose ofthis study is to investigate if textual enhancement and input frequency can promotethe noticing of subjunctive mood and the induced attention can facilitate theacquisition of subjunctive mood.Three questions are raised in this study:(1) Does textual enhancement promote noticing and acquisition of subjunctivemood for high school second language learners?(2) Does input frequency facilitate noticing and acquisition of subjunctivemood for high school second language learners?(3) Does the combination of the two condition positively influence noticing andacquisition of subjunctive mood?There are altogether203high school students from4science classesparticipating in the current study. Four classes are divided into four groups: threeexperimental groups and one control group. The three experimental groups are onetextual enhancement group, one input frequency group and one both textualenhancement and input frequency group. Before the experiment, all the subjects takepart in a pretest which is to examine their language competence of subjunctive mood. The content of the experiment is2reading comprehension (but frequency group has4reading comprehension) and the subjects have the posttest immediately after theexperiment. There are15multiple-choice questions for each pretest and posttest.However, considering the awareness of grammar, pretest also has different types ofsubjunctive mood in order to the effectiveness of the experiment. The noticing of thesubjects for the language forms is tested through questionnaire.After the analysis of all the data by SPSS17.0, the results are as the follows:(1) Textual enhancement can promote noticing and acquisition of thesubjunctive mood for high school second language learners.(2) Input frequency can facilitate the acquisition of subjunctive mood for highschool second language learners, but have some effects on noticing ofsubjunctive mood to some extent.(3) The combination of the two conditions has great effects on noticing andacquisition of subjunctive mood for high school second language learners.The results further proof that drawing learner’s attention appropriately in ameaningful context can promote their grammar awareness and influence theform-meaning and input-intake processing, so as to promote the acquisition of thetarget language. |
