comprehensible input

912010年12月中国应用语言学（双月刊）Dec.2010第33卷第6期ChineseJournalofAppliedLinguistics(Bimonthly)Vol.33No.6AnEmpiricalStudyontheEffectsofComprehensibleInputonIncidentalEnglishVocabularyRecognitionHANXiaohuiHarbinInstituteofTechnologyAbstractThisstudyinvestigatestheeffectsofcomprehensibleinputonincidentalEnglishvocabularyrecognition.Immediatelyafterreceivingdifferenttypesofinput,220non-Englishmajorfreshmentookaposttestofvocabularyrecognition.Theresultsofthecurrentstudyvalidatethepositiveeffectsofpremodifiedinput,interactionallymodifiedinputandmodifiedoutputonEnglishlearners’incidentalvocabularyrecognition.Enhancedinputandmodifiedoutputplaysignificantlyfacilitatedrolesintheshort-termmemoryofEnglishlearnersandfurtherresultinbetterinstantlexicalrecognition.Keywords:premodifiedinput;interactionallymodifiedinput;modifiedoutput;incidentalEnglishvocabularyrecognition1.IntroductionIthasbeenwidelyacceptedthatinputprovidesthelinguisticdatathatadevelopinglinguisticsystemneedstoactualizeacquisition.Whenlearnersreceiveinput,theyoffertheirdevelopinglinguisticsystemthedataitneedstostarttheprocessofacquisition.Gass(1997:1)oncesummarizedthat“theconceptofinputisperhapsthesinglemostimportantconceptofsecondlanguageacquisition(SLA).Itistrivialtopointoutthatnoindividualcanlearnasecondlanguage(L2)withoutinputofsomesort”.TheroleofinputcomprehensionhasbeenoftheprimeimportanceinSLAtheoryandresearchterritory.Thishasbeenmotivatedbythebeliefthatalearner’sexposuretothetargetlanguageisnotasufficientandeffectiveconditionforanL2acquisition.Ithasbeenawidespreadconvictionthatinputmustbecomprehendedbythelearner92AnEmpiricalStudyontheEffectsofComprehensibleInputonIncidentalEnglishVocabularyRecognitionifitistoassisttheacquisitionprocess.Giventhesignificanceofinputcomprehensioninlanguageacquisition,currentSLAresearchhastriedtoidentifywhatmakesinputcomprehensibletothelearner,andwhatcontributionscomprehensibleinputmakestolanguageacquisition.Long(1982:341)initiallysuggestedfourwaystomakeinputcomprehensiblebymodifyingoralorwritteninput,providinglinguisticandextralinguisticcontext,orientingthecommunicationtothesimpleform,andmodifyingtheinteractionalstructureoftheconversation.Onthebasisofthisargumentation,Park(2002:2-3)summarizedthreelinguisticenvironmentsasthepotentialsourcesofcomprehensibleinputforL2acquisition:(1)premodifiedinput—thelinguisticenvironmentwhereinputhasbeenmodifiedinsomewaybeforethelearnerseesorhearsit;(2)interactionallymodifiedinput—thelinguisticenvironmentwhereanativespeaker(NS)oramorecompetentnon-nativespeaker(NNS)interactswithanNNS,andwherebothpartiesmodifyandrestructuretheinteractiontoarriveatmutualunderstanding;and(3)modifiedoutput—thelinguisticenvironmentwherealearnermodifieshis/heroutputtomakeitmoretarget-likeandmorecomprehensibletotheinterlocutor.Itisnecessarytoclarifythatalearner’smodifiedoutputcanserveasanotherlearner’scomprehensibleinput.ThefollowingsectionpresentsrelatedstudiesconductedbysomescholarsinSLAresearchterritory.2.Literaturereview2.1PremodifiedinputElaboratedinputInputelaborationretainsdifficultvocabularyitemsandcomplexsyntacticstructuresbeyondreaders’acquiredlanguageproficiency,butitofferstheinterpretationofthebothortheeither.Itattemptstoincreasetextcomprehensibilitybywayofprovidingdefinitionsofdifficultvocabularyitems,paraphrasingsentencescontainingcomplexsyntacticstructures,andenrichingsemanticdetails.Kim(2003)statedthatinputmodificationinthedirectionofelaborationispreferredinSLAonthegroundsthatelaboratedinputretainsthematerialthatL2learnersneedfordevelopingtheirinterlanguageandprovideswithnaturaldiscoursemodel.Ithasbeennotedthatelaboratedadjustmentshavetheadvantageofsupplyinglearnerswithaccesstothelinguisticitemstheyhaven’tyettoacquire(Larsen-Freeman&Long,1991).Likewise,ParkerandChaudron(1987:131-133)reviewedseveralrelatedexperimentalstudiesandfurtherconcludedthatelaborativemodificationshaveapositiveeffectonL2comprehensionandacquisition.Theyalsodistinguishedtwotypesofelaborativemodifications,thosecontributingtoredundancyandthosemakingthethematicstructureexplicit.Similarly,whenUrano(2002:5)investigatedtheeffectsoflexicalsimplificationandelaborationonsentencecomprehensionandincidentalvocabularyacquisition,theresultsconfirmedthatlexicalelaborationismorefavorablethanlexicalsimplificationintermsofbothL2readingcomprehensionandvocabularyacquisition.Morerecently,93HANXiaohuiKong(2007)exploredtheeffectsoflexicalsimplificationandelaborationonL2Koreanreadingcomprehension.Theparticipantswereassignedintothefollowingfiveconditions:baseline,simplified,lexicallyelaborated,structurallyelaborated,andlexicallyandstructurallyelaborated.Theresultsshowedthatbothsimplifiedandelaboratedinputpromotedtheparticipants’readingcomprehensionwithnosignificantdifferencebetweenthetwo.Nevertheless,otherstudiesshowedthatnotallformsofinputelaborationbenefitL2comprehensionsincevocabularyelaborationmightleadtolearners’confusionaboutwhatanalternativeisandwhatadditionalinformationis.Ellis(1995)cautionedthatalthoughelaborationsmighthelpSLA,over-elaboratedinputcouldbeco