Effects Of A Continuation Task On Tolerance Of Ambiguity In Foreign Language Learning

Foreign language teaching pursues high efficiency and tries various methods to help language learning.The xu-argument is the embodiment of this teaching pursuit.The xu-argument explains how to acquire language from the perspective of social cognition and clearly points out that language learning needs “continuation.” The continuation task closely combines input and output through “continuation”,and has a prominent role in promoting learning.As an essential factor of learners’ individual differences,tolerance of ambiguity has increasingly become an important research content in linguistics,pedagogy,psychology and other fields.This study specifically analyzes the following two questions:1.Can the continuation task improve students’ tolerance of ambiguity?2.Are there any differences between input tolerance of ambiguity and output tolerance of ambiguity? What are the changes after the continuation task?In response to these two questions,this study conducted a teaching intervention experiment on 94 sophomore students in a high school for eight weeks,with the first and last weeks as test weeks.45 students in the experimental class were given a sixweek continuation writing task,and 49 students in the control class were given a sixweek traditional theme writing task.Through the analysis of the results,it is found that before the experiment,students’ tolerance of ambiguity was generally in the middle and lower level,and students’ input tolerance of ambiguity was significantly higher than the output tolerance of ambiguity.After the continuation task,the level of tolerance of ambiguity of students in the experimental class improved significantly,the number of students with low tolerance of ambiguity decreased,and the number of students with middle tolerance of ambiguity increased.There was no significant difference between input and output tolerance of ambiguity of students and they have reached a symmetrical development after the experiment.In the control class,students’ tolerance of ambiguity did not change significantly after six weeks of traditional theme writing task.The research results show that the continuation task inhibits native language compensation,provides learners with rich context and helps students develop target language thinking mode,thus reduces the occurrence of ambiguous situations.In addition,the continuation task helps them properly deal with the ambiguity phenomenon encountered in the learning process.Thus,expanding their exposure to the target language,improving the input and output tolerance of ambiguity and increasing their input and output opportunities,and further improving their own learning level.