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EXPERIMENTAL TEACHING ON COLLEGE ENGLISH INSPIRED BY INPUT
HYPOTHESIS AND OUTPUT HYPOTHESIS
Xu Heng,
The Case Study on Nantong Institute of Technology
Wang Fei-yan
Nantong Institute of Technology, Nantong, China
Key words:
Input Hypothesis; Output Hypothesis; second language acquisition;
experimental teaching.
Ever since the rapid development of
globalization, English has become the
international working language, and its
growing
importance
requests
higher
standards of English teaching. Since 1960s,
first language acquisition theories have been
applied to second language acquisition and
foreign language teaching. The booming of
the study on second language acquisition has
made it the most active subject in applied
linguistics. Input Hypothesis raised by
Krashen and Output Hypothesis raised by
Swain are the most important theories to find
out the relationship between input, output
and second language acquisition, which is a
key problem in the study.
1. Theoretical Statement of Input
Hypothesis and Output Hypothesis
Krashen (1977, 1985) puts forward a
set of hypothesis about second language
acquisition and believes that humans acquire
language only by understanding messages or
receiving comprehensible input. According
to him, to move from stage ―i‖ to ― i+1‖,
acquirers must understand input that contains
structures a bit beyond their current level of
competence. However, for college English
teaching in Chinese vocational schools, it is
very difficult for teachers to define ―i‖,
which can be largely contributed to the
ambiguousness of the concept. If the input is
too simple for students, it would be
insufficient for students to learn; if it is too
difficult to be understood, it would be
frustrating for students.
Later, Swain (1985) put forward the
Output Hypothesis and was convinced that
output, in some circumstances, stimulated
language acquisition by forcing learners to
process
languages
syntactically.
Both
comprehensible input and output are needed
for
second
language
acquisition.
In
producing the target language vocally or
subvocally learners may notice a gap
between what they want to say and what they
can say, leading them to recognize what they
do not know or know partially. Producing
output
can
also
test
learners‘
comprehensibility of the target language,
which is the purpose of language teaching.
2. Problems of Current College
English Teaching in Chinese Vocational
schools
Vocational schools in China are
established to cultivate students with expert
working skills, and English is generally
regarded
as
a
tool
of
international
communication. Students are supposed to be
educated to be able to read English materials
of their field and communicate with future
foreign counterparts. However, students are
also required to pass standard tests, such as
CET-4 and CET-6 (College English Test).
Therefore, some problems still exist in
current College English teaching in Chinese
vocational
schools
because
of
those
contradictions.
First and foremost, as Chinese being
the official and native language for most
people, it is rare for Chinese students to have
the opportunities to use English as a
communicative language. Besides classroom
activities, students have little access to the
language in a daily occasion, not to mention
comprehensible input. However, we can not
call it conscious input if comprehensible
input just comes from classroom input and
communication with other learners.
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Second, due to the long history of
examination-oriented teaching methodology
in China, most students are highly driven by
passing tests instead of mastering and using
the knowledge with a vague understanding of
the importance of English in their future
career.
Meanwhile,
failures
from
examinations can easily lead to anxiety and
frustration.
Third,
results
of
Entrance
Examination (a nationwide and standard test
in China) always show wild inconsistencies
among students enrolled in vocational
schools, which is rare in other colleges and
universities in China. Take students enrolled
in Nantong Institute of Technology in 2014
for example, of all the 1194 students, the
highest score in English is 84 while the
lowest is only 35. Therefore, college English
teaching becomes especially difficult due to
the great differences.
Last but not least, most Chinese
students are more willing to listen, read and
write than to speak. Therefore, after years of
preparation, in the school year 2013-2014,
we chose one class to do the experimental
teaching. We tried so many methods to
encourage students to talk that we even threw
the textbooks and tests away. Our attempt
was proved to be quite successful in students‘
willingness to talk. However, we neglected
that input was as important as output.
Without enough input students can only
repeatedly use structures and words they
already know instead of using new phrases
and expressions. Besides, without sufficient
exercises, students made handful of mistakes
in reading and writing.
3. Application of Input Hypothesis
and Output Hypothesis in College English
Based on the analysis of advantages
and disadvantages of Input Hypothesis and
Output Hypothesis and current problems in
college English teaching, we find out that
listening and reading is as important as
speaking and writing. Only a balance
between input and output can be proved to be
efficient in teaching. Input and output from
classroom teaching is far from enough.
Therefore, the following suggestions are
made to do the work.
First, hierarchal teaching is quite
necessary although we are totally aware of its
deficiency. We could divide the students into
three levels, and each level has its
corresponding teaching schedules, steps
textbooks and specially-designed activities.
The division could be based on the results of
Entrance Examination and our entrance exam.
After all, we should teach students in
accordance of their aptitude.
Second, we should provide more
opportunities for students to use English,
both in classroom and after class. According
to our previous research, free-style speech is
highly effective. Students could choose their
interested topics, collect information, work
on their paper and finally make the
performance. When making their speech,
they should also answer all the questions
related to the content raised by students and
teachers. The whole process perfectly
illustrates input-taking in-output. Besides,
group discussion and role-play, together with
annual national writing competition and
speaking competition, are also proved to be
able to bring the same effect.
Third, after class, ―Second Classroom‖
activities could be taken into consideration.
―Second Classroom‖ activities should be
related to students‘ majors and hobbies. For
example, Automobile Marketing majors
could go to sell cars to foreigners in 4S shops;
Tourism majors could work as guides for
foreigners in travel agencies, and etc. These
activities are more acceptable for students for
their
practicability,
participation
and
enjoyment. Of course, the organization of
these activities should be under careful
schedule and preparation.
4. Experimental Teaching
To test if the above statements are
effective,
we
make
the
following
experimental teaching.
4.1 Subjects
We choose the freshmen from Class
1401 (39 students), 1402 (40 students) and
Class 1404 (38 students) of Business
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Administration Department as our subjects.
The selection of the subjects is determined on
the results of Entrance Examination in
English and our entrance test and the average
scores of the three classes are quite similar.
Class 1401 is used as the control group while
Class 1402 and 1404 experimental group.
4.2 Research Design
We divide Class 1402 and 1404 into
three classes (Level A, B, and C). To better
explain the four classes, the following table
is made.
Students‘ number
Average score of
Entrance Examination
(120‘)
Average score of
entrance test (100‘)
Class 1401
39
61.57
72.19
Class Level A
26
65.10
79.85
Class Level B
33
55.58
62.41
Class Level C
29
44.43
51.09
In Class 1401, passing CET-4 and
CET-6 is the priority of teaching and
studying, so all the 80 periods of class are
spent in exercising and tests. However, in
Class Level A, we rescheduled the teaching
plan and aimed to cultivate students‘ ability
to use English in commercial working
occasions, so we divide the course into 10
parts as the following table shows.
Contents
periods
1.
Company Establishment
2.
Business Exhibition
3.
Contacting and Reserving
4.
Receiving Guests
5.
Agenda
6.
Business Negotiation
7.
Signing Contract
8.
Sightseeing and Farewell
9.
Claim and Arbitration
10. Performance
6
6
6
6
6
12
6
6
6
20
Each part contains an assignment,
including
group
discussion,
speech,
situational dialogue, contract writing, claim
writing etc. In the final part ―Performance‖,
all the students are supposed to work as a
team and make a situational play and perform
it. As for tests, students are encouraged to
prepare it in their spare time. Apart from that,
students are arranged to visit a foreign trade
department of a local company for a week
and are required to write a report after the
visit.
In Class Level B, students are
supposed to spend 60 periods on all these
parts and 20 periods on tests. In contrast,
students in Class Level C should spend 60
periods on tests and only 20 periods on Part
1-4.
4.3 Testing and Scoring
After one term‘s teaching and
studying (March, 2015- June, 2015), all the
students from 4 classes attended the final-
term exam and CET-4 examination, both
containing listening, reading and writing tests.
Besides, all of them participated in the oral
test after the final-term exam. National
English Competition for College Students,
together with National English Writing
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Competition, English Speaking Competition
and English Speech Competition in Jiangsu
Province, has attracted some of the students
after months of training. The following data
vividly illustrates the differences of the
performance of the four classes.
average score
of final-term
exam (100‘)
Average
score of CET-
4 (710‘)
Average
score of oral
test
(100‘)
Number of
attending
writing
competitions
Number of
attending
speaking
competitions
Class 1401
85.14
424.19
82.66
28
4
Class Level A
88.01
434.82
94.18
20
6
Class Level B
79.24
413.49
89.55
12
3
Class Level C
77.91
392.85
72.47
0
2
4.4 Analysis
From the above data, it can be easily
inferred that although test-oriented teaching
is highly efficient in helping students passing
exams, our experiential teaching proves to be
effective as long as plenty of input and
output exercises have been designed.
However, students from Class Level A are
more willing to attend competitions than
those from Class 1401, which can be largely
contributed to the constant exercises in and
after the class.
It could be also inferred that the
hierarchal teaching can best suit the need of
vocational school students. If we compare the
scores of Class Level C in the Entrance
Examination and entrance exam at the
beginning of the term and the scores in final-
term exam and CET-4 at the end of the term,
we can see that students in this class have
made great progress. Meanwhile, students
with similar scores in the Entrance
Examination and entrance exam in Class
1401 (the last 13 ones in academic
achievement order) did not perform as well
as they do. According to our statistics, their
average scores are 76.82 and 389.48.
However,
5. Conclusion
Input and output are inseparable in
the process of English learning. Only the
application of both Input Hypothesis and
Output Hypothesis could help promote the
college
English
teaching
in
Chinese
vocational schools.
In our future research, we will focus
on the replenishment and perfection of our
experimental teaching, in the hopes that our
methodology could be helpful to college
English teaching to other vocational schools
in China.
Reference
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Хорижий филология.
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Xu Heng, Wang Fei-yan. Experimental Teaching Inspired by Input Hypothesis and
Output Hypothesis at College English.
“Input Hypothesis” is the core of Krashen‟s language
acquisition theory, which is proved to be of substantial influence among second language educators
in China. But we can find the impracticability and one-sidedness of “Input Hypothesis”. In 1980s
Swain put forward “Output Hypothesis”, maintaining that output plays an equal important role in
the process of SLA. Analyzing “Input Hypothesis” and “Output Hypothesis”, the paper puts
forward combination of these two hypotheses in English teaching at vocational college, so as to
advance students‟ English acquisition, which is proved by experimental teaching.
Ху Хенг, Ванг Феи-ян. Коллежларда инглиз тилини ўқитишда тажриба
сифатида ички ва ташқи таъсир усулларидан фойдаланиш
. Мақолада кўрсатилган
усулларнинг тавсифи берилиб, коллежларда инглиз тилини ўқитишда ҳар иккаласидан
биргаликда фойдаланиш маъқуллигини кўрсатиб ўтади.
