产出性练习在二语习得中的作用

On the Function of Output Activity in Second Language Acquisition

Swain认为,产出性活动有三个作用,其中之一就是“刺激注意”。它指的是学习者在产出(说或写)语言的过程中认识到自己语言中的缺陷,从而注意到目的语中的相应语言形式,促进语言习得。本研究考察了产出性练习在习得六个英语词语搭配中的作用,受试是初中三年级的两个班的学生,对实验后的两次测试所收集的数据的分析揭示了本实验的两个主要发现:第一、对这些语言形式的习得,产出性练习比理解性练习具有更为明显的促进作用;这一点证实了Swain的观点;第二、受试在不同的产出性练习中的表现有差异,这可能是由不同的产出性练习所要求的认知水平不一样造成的。研究者还发现,同样的产出性练习对具有不同句法特征的语言形式有不同的促进作用。

Output, as is claimed by Swain＇s output hypothesis, plays three functions, one of which is noticing triggering/prompting function. This paper reports an empirical study on the function of output activity in acquisition of six lexical collocations in SLA. A specially designed and focused output task -- sentence completion in answering comprehension questions -- was used as the treatment tool for the experiment group, together with six ready made passages as the input materials. The analysis of the data collected through an immediate posttest and a delayed posttest points to three major findings of this study： First, the production activities have a significantly better effect in facilitating the learners to acquire these forms than the comprehension activities; moreover, the effect is durable. Second, the learners perform better at the translation tasks than at the error-correction tasks; the translation tasks that are higher in cognitive demands tend to show greater individual variation than the error-correction tasks that are lower in cognitive demands. And finally, the same production task have had different effects on forms of different features.