Output may not help

Dec 18, 2006 at 12:56 PM
3 comments

This study investigated whether giving learners an opportunity for oral output has any positive effect on the L2 learners' acquisition of a grammatical form. Twenty-four adult ESL learners were randomly assigned to one of three groups: an output group, which engaged in a picture description task that involved input comprehension and output production; a non-output group, which engaged in a picture sequencing task that required input comprehension only; and a placebo control group. The two treatment groups were exposed to the same aural input for the same amount of time. Learning was assessed by means of a pre-test and a post-test consisting of production and reception parts. The results indicated that, contrary to our expectations, the output group failed to outperform the non-output group. On the contrary, it was the non-output group that showed greater overall gains in learning. A careful post-hoc re-examination of the treatment tasks revealed that the output task failed to engage learners in the syntactic processing that is necessary to trigger L2 learning, while the task for the non-output group appeared to promote better form-meaning mapping.

Yukiko Izumi and Shinichi Izumi
Investigating the Effects of Oral Output on the Learning of Relative Clauses in English: Issues in the Psycholinguistic Requirements for Effective Output Tasks

I believe that if the output is done in a non-stressful way, like imitating with a focus on the rhythm of phrases, then it does help with grammar, usage and pronunciation.

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I really do not understand this experience. What was the objectif of this experience? There is a lack of something but I do not know what, to be able to understand it. What is the meaning in this context (Grammar acquisition) of Oral Output? What is an output group, an non output group? Input comprehension? Output production ? What was the pretext? the postest? What is the concretly production and reception parts? (writing and listening? ) What was the role of the Placebo control group? What is the maining of this sentence `:The outgroup failed to outperform the non output group? (the input group? ) What is the maining of post hoc? What is a syntacsic processing? (syntaxic processus?- make good structure of phrases? ) What does it mean Form-Meaning mapping? Je me sens une ``cruche`` en lisant ce texte! Johanne

Re this experiment (note not experience as in French!), the objective was to see if asking learners to use the language, that is to speak, to answer questions etc. (to produce language output) would help them in the use of the relative pronoun in English. One group was asked to produce output, but another one group only had input (listening presumably) and one group was a placebo group which must mean that they did not know they were being tested. We would have to read more to find out details.

There was a test before the experiment and one after (pre-test and post-test) and it showed the input group did better on the test. A final (post hoc) re-examination showed that the output task did not engage the learners in dealing with syntax (grammar or structure) in such a way as to learn the structure. On the other hand the input group was better able to create links between the form or language structure they heard and meaning.

I am not surprised. Input activities are very effective for language learning. Any output task that puts stress on the learner will not be effective. I believe the main job of a language teacher is to make the learner happy, to enable the learner to find “flow”, where curiosity is engaged and the learner’s skills are adequate to the challenge of the task.