The Role of Output in Second Language Acquisition

Abstract： Output is a major terminal action in second language acquisition. For this action scholars have carried out a great number of researches. Among them one of the most famous is Output Hypothesis. This paper mainly reviews Output Hypothesis and then examines its positive role in the process of second language acquisition（SLA）.

Key Words：input positive role second language acquisition

Ⅰ. Introduction

It was not until the late twentieth century that second language acquisition was regarded as an independent discipline， with the development of which arose a lot of theories， in the midst of which， Swains Output Hypothesis is among one of the most influential. In her theory， Swain clearly pointed out the positive role of output in SLA. This paper mainly reviews the Output Hypotheses and discusses its positive role in the process of second language acquisition and finally draws the conclusion.

Ⅱ. An Overview of Output Hypothesis

Output Hypothesis was put forward by the Canadian linguist Merrill Swain in 1985. Based on her research on the French immersion students language ability， Swain challenged the reliability of the Input Hypothesis. She studied the French immersion programs in Canada， whose aim was to develop English students French ability through teaching their other disciplines in French. By testing， Swain found that though these students ability on listening comprehension， language fluency， and discourse functions were good， yet， their grammatical accuracy was not that satisfactory. As a result， Swain proposed the “Comprehensible Output Hypothesis”.

Swain claimed that “producing output is one way of testing a hypothesis about comprehensibility or linguistic well-formedness”.Second language learners test their language correctness through their output. By the metalinguistic reflection function， Swain means “output can serve to control and internalize linguistic knowledge”.

Ⅲ. Enlightenments of Output in Assisting Second Language Acquisition

Input is crucial in SLA， however， output should no阿t be neglected. In order to put what we have input into our own language ability， we must have enough output. Output not only enhances our language fluency but also increases our language accuracy.

In the output process， we should not only pay attention to the style but the content of the output and we should always try our best to pick out the new language that we have got in our input to internalize that knowledge.

As for the ways of output， there are also various. The first is sentence making. We can use some words or phrases to make up sentences， translate sentences， recite and retell paragraphs and make some questions according to the passages and then answer by ourselves. Second is interaction. For this method， we can find someone that we can speak the target language with and practice. Some easy conversations can be the starters. Then with the development of the pair， difficult words or phrases can be added. A third way can be rewriting. After reading something we can rewrite what we have read in our own language. This kind of exercise can make us practice different kinds of language skills. For example， we can use antonyms and synonyms in our rewriting to develop our understanding and analyzing ability. Fourthly， we can make some plays and act them out to output our language knowledge. Fifthly， discussion， debate， and speech are good output methods for us to practice second language. In a word， we should make any use of opportunity to produce our second language and make our output as much as possible.

Ⅳ. Conclusion

In recent years， more and more people start to join the area of language acquisition research. Among the researchers and researches， Swains Output Hypothesis is of crucial importance. Swain based on her study found out that input only can not facilitate the language learners language ability. Therefore， she proposed the Output Hypothesis and emphasized the important role of output in language acquisition. Actually， both input and output are essential to second language acquisition. As a result， we should make full use of these two factors and get as much as input as well as output as possible to make our language acquisition faster and more accurate.

Works Cited：

[1]Swain， Merrill and Yang Luxin. Output Hypothesis： Its History and Its Future[J]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research，2008（1）.45-49.

[2]譚志敏. 輸入，輸出與情感過濾理論在大學聽力教學中的應用研究[D].北京：北京第二外國語學院，2008.

作者簡介：

李志遠（1985— ），男，吉林省吉林市人，文學碩士，講師，研究方向：應用語言學、翻譯與跨文化研究。

（責編 ? 張景賢）