Accordingtothetitle,TheRoleofInputinLanguage
Acquisition:SomeImplicationsforSecondLanguageTeaching.Andthentwoquestionsrisefromthetitle.
1.WhatisInputinLanguageAcquisition?2.HowitinfluencessecondLanguageTeaching?
Sothisarticleresponsewillgomainlywiththesetwoquestions.
Thefirstquestionwasmentionedinparagraph1,“Untilfairlyrecentlysecondlanguageacquisitionresearchhascloselyaligneditselfwithresearchintofirstlanguagedevelopment.Informedbythementalistparadigm,ithas,inparticular,sooughttoestablishthedevelopmentalsequenceswhichoccurintheacquisitionofmorphosyntacticfeatures.”
Thesystematicstudyofsecondlanguageacquisitionoriginatedinthetwentiesandthirtiesofthelastcentury.Bythelate1960sandearly1970s,thesystematicstudyofsecondlanguageacquisitionhadgraduallydevelopedintoanindependentdiscipline.Inputreferstothetargetlanguagematerialthatthesecondlanguagelearnersareexposedto,whichisanimportantfactorinsecondlanguageacquisition.Mostlinguistsandlanguageteachersagreethatinputplaysamostimportantrolebecausesecondlanguageacquisitionispossibleonlywhenlearnersacceptinput.Acquisitionoccursonlywhenlearnershavetheopportunitytoreceivetargetlanguageinput,soitcanbesaidthatthereisnoacquisitionwithoutinput.Inform,inputItcanbeoralorwritten;inthewayitoccurs,inputcanoccureitherinatwo-waycommunicationenvironmentorinaone-waynon-communicativeenvironment;byitsnature,inputcanbeapositivecorpus.Itcanalsobenegativedata,thatis,inputcanbeeitheragrammaticalsetofsentencesthatlearnersareexposedtoasanexample,oranimplicitorexplicitfeedbackprovidedtolearnersabouttheirincorrectexpression.Linguistshavestudiedthisfactorandputforwardtheirowninputviewsandtheories.Thispaperwillbrieflydescribethesemaininputtheoriesandviews,andintegratethemwithThispaperdiscussestheimplicationsofinputresearchforforeignlanguageclassroomteaching.
Differenttheorieshavedifferentexplanationsfortheroleofinputinsecondlanguageacquisition.Intheearly20thcentury,languageacquisitiontheoryanditsdependenceontheinputprovidedtolearners.Insubsequentlanguageacquisitiontheories,theunderstandingoftheroleofinputinlanguageacquisitionhasnotdiminished.Whatchangestheconceptofhowindividualsdealwithinputandhowinputinteractswithlearners'psychologicalability.Let'stakealookatthefollowingkeyinputideasandargumentsthatarerepresentative:
1.BehavioristpointofviewBehavioristlanguageacquisitiontheoryholdsthatlanguageisbehaviorandstimulation-reaction-reinforcementistheprocessoflanguageacquisition.TheAudio-visualmethod
