Role of Output in Second Language Acquisition

Abstract

The thesis entitled ‘Role of Output in Second Language Acquisition’ was an attempt of the researcher to find out the role of output in learning English past tense. To achieve the objectives of the study, both the primary and secondary sources of data were used. A sample of 30 grade 9 students from a private school in Kathmandu district was taken as informants for the purpose of the study. Test items were regarded as the tool to collect primary data. The students were divided into two groups-controlled (Group A) and experimental (Group B) and they were taught English (past tense) for 20 days. The study found that Group B has achieved 11.74 marks more than that of the Group A in the post test. It showed that the output of Group B in English past tense was better than Group A. The progress of group B was due to the focus on language output (production) during the period of teaching which Group A did not get. Through this evidence, it is found that focus on output is a requirement for successful learning of a second language as the activities of producing the target language enables the target language learners to consciously recognize their linguistic problems and make them more aware of something they need to know about the target (second) language. It was derived from the study that the production of output promotes ‘noticing’ which helps learners to recognize the gap between what they want to produce and what they actually produced.

The thesis has been divided into four chapters. The first chapter deals with the general background, literature review, objectives and the significance of the study. The second chapter contains the methodology which is sub-chaptered as the sources of data, sampling procedure, tools for data collection, process of data collection and the limitations of the study. The third chapter includes the analysis and interpretation of the data obtained from the field. The fourth chapter contains the findings and recommendations of the study.