Quality Input as a Key Factor in Second Language Acquisition

Evidence from Chinese English Learners Aged Under 12

DOI

10.2991/978-2-494069-89-3_302How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Second Language Acquisition; The Input Hypothesis; Comprehensible Input

Abstract

In linguistics, a hotly debated question is that why some second language learners are better than others. One practical and applicable theory accounting for the difference in L2 acquisition is “The Input Hypothesis” presented by Krashen. This theory has been evidenced by many experiments carried out in countries like US and UK, and a large amount of data has been collected demonstrating that the comprehensible input is the key factor in every aspect in language learning. However, academics have done fewer experiments in China on “The Input Hypothesis” thus remaining an inadequate under of this issue for Chinese learners. Therefore, this article aims at probing into “The Input Hypothesis” in the context of China from two main aspects—“The effect of comprehensible input” and “Benefits of more comprehensible input”. Different research methodologies including a case study, classroom teaching observation, students random tests at school, teacher interviews, teaching research and competence tracking projects have been applied for these two sections and the data that has been collected as a result has verified “The Input Hypothesis”. For example, the data from the random tests at school for the first aspect shows a significant benefit for Comprehensible Input and findings from the teaching research and linguistics competence tracking projects in the second part demonstrate more comprehensible input really benefits SLA after 26 weeks of teaching. The solution to this is constantly having students practice what they have learned after Comprehensible Input, which is probably the most efficient way for second language acquisition based on the research findings.

Copyright

© 2022 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Wandi Wang
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/12/30
TI  - Quality Input as a Key Factor in Second Language Acquisition
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 5th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 2642
EP  - 2653
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-494069-89-3_302
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-494069-89-3_302
ID  - Wang2022
ER  -