AnAnalysisonanESLClass

DuYueqing

【Abstract】Input is the precondition of interaction and output while output promotes the input and the interaction of language，which could increase the effectiveness of input and enhance the chance of the absorption of interaction.By analyzing an ESL class，this paper gives readers a picture of how the second language （SL） learners get information，absorb and digest the information，produce language and form their language system in their SL learning.At last，it gives suggestions on how to ensure language learners have a better chance to get comprehensible input，assimilate language during interaction and output more accurate and comprehensible second language in an ESL class.

【Key Words】ESL class； input； interaction； output

Introduction of the ESL class

Recorded by “Universal Institute of Technology”，which is a language institute，this class is an adult English as second language class （ESL） in the city of Melbourne.It is a class at the pre-intermediate level，which is comprised of a small group of the students，approximately 8.These students come from different countries and different backgrounds，namely Peru，Brazil，Italy，China and the majority of Korea，and do not have the same first language in common.Having been teaching them for about 5 months，the teacher Ms.Monique Sheldon-Stemm （Ms.Sheldon） focuses on how to talk about a special occasion by using two tenses，the past continuous tense and the simple past tense，to tell a story and she used four steps to achieve her teaching purpose.

In the first step of the class，Ms.Sheldon gave a topic and brainstormed the students.The students had 2 minutes to think about the words and phrases that may be related to the topic.For the second step of the teaching procedure，the teacher asked the students to find a partner and talk about his/her own ideas，which would take another 2 minutes.What the students need to do during this period of time is to understand what his/her partner is speaking about his/her special occasion and try to help each other and improve by listening carefully.For the third step，the students were asked to think about how to make a proper sentence and then write down 2 sentences using their own words from brainstorming in 5 minutes.Ms.Sheldon didnt forget to remind the students of tenses they should use for making their sentences.For step 4，she suggested the students check their sentences by reading aloud or asking someone else such as the teacher or partners to find whether the sentences are correct or not.The criterion was that if the sentences were understood，they were correct.Then each students need to tell their stories，“A Special Occasion” to their partners.Ms.Sheldon emphasized the word “tell”，which means when the students tell their stories，it is not reading but having a conversation with partners about their particular occasions.Then at last，the students would share the stories with the class.

From the conversation in the class between the teacher and the students，people could find that the teacher always spoke in a soft voice and helped the students to correct sentences and answered their questions carefully and promptly.She was so patient with the students that repeated the instructions and questions again and again in order to avoid misunderstanding of the students and put a lot of emphasis of the students feedback in order to ensure whether they understood the requirements.Every student was asked to read the 2 sentences that they wrote loudly and told their stories to the class，which meant that each had the opportunities to practice their listening and speaking.

Analysis of the ESL class

In this class，to achieve the purpose of talking about a special occasion of the past，Ms.Sheldon asked every student to brainstorm words and phrases，talk with partners，write down sentences and finally tell and share a story of a special occasion with the class to practice the use of the past continuous tense and the simple past tense as well as the English skills such as listening，speaking，reading and writing.In this way，every student has the opportunity to practice and improve their second language -- English.Also in the class，guided learning and questioning strategies were implemented.Ms.Sheldon always repeated the instructions or questions and paid much attention on the feedback of the students by asking them whether they understand the questions or requirements and guided them to answer her questions，which aroused students noticing of language learning.Also she guided them by saying，“who was there？ When was it？ What happened？ Was it private？ At a party？” etc.However large numbers of repeated sentences seem like not very proper to teach adults.

In addition，in this ESL class，the teacher stressed on the cooperation and mutual support among the students，which created a good language environment for SL learners to learn，practice and develop their second language learning.Besides，elements of language such as words，sentence structure，grammar，oral expression and essay writing were taught from step by step.All of them were taught in a way from an easy level to a difficult level.As far as we are known，an essay is comprised of sentences while sentences are composed of words.The information of the essay should be delivered by oral expression like presentation or speech.Reading the sentences or the essay loudly，the information contained could be meaningful and understood by others.Thus the function of language—transferring meaning will be realized.

1.Input

Input refers to language that is available to the learner through any medium （listening，reading，or gestural in the case of sign language）.All theories of SL learning recognize the significant of input as a basic component in acquisition process （Gass，Susan & Mackey，Alison 2006）.The comprehensive input hypothesis claims that the acquirer should understand input language that contains structure a bit beyond his or her current level of competence.Krashen defined the learners current stage of studying language as “i”.The next stage of developing language is “i+1” （cited from Li Chao 2013）.That is to say the language that the learners learned should be a little bit beyond their present competence.If the language is either too difficult or too easy，learners could not get comprehensible input.Because if the input language or material is too difficult，learners could not understand so that the teaching procedure cannot be kept going，but if the input language or material is too easy，learners could feel that there is no challenge so that lose interests and the SL leaning could not receive a pleasant result.

In the class，Ms.Sheldon asked the students to use the past continuous tense and the simple past tense.The students absolutely had learned the two tenses before but they needed to use two tenses together in their tasks.It is a kind of “i+1” input because they might know how to use them separately but when mixed them，they might be confused.What is more，in the third step there was a student asked whether it is one sentence if there is comma in the sentence.The teacher answered that there could be many commas in one sentence because in one sentence many things could happen and the comma could give the sentence details.She also told the students that a sentence begins with the capital letter and ends with a full stop with a sentence as an example.She gave the students effective answer according to their current language ability to help students to acquire better understanding and comprehensible knowledge during SL learning.

2.Interaction

Interaction is believed to be helpful in exchanges between/among learners or between/among learners and native speakers （or fluent speakers） of the language being learned where language is negotiated，or feedback is provided.Feedback is an important feature of interaction and can be viewed on a continuum between explicit and implicit.The interaction hypothesis is primarily concerned with reactive feedback—that is，feedback that occurs as a reaction to some linguistic problem.It can come from many individuals，including not only teachers，but also other learners or native speakers of a language （Gass，Susan & Mackey，Alison 2006）.In the class，Ms.Sheldon is a native speaker while the students are SL learners.During the conversation between Ms.Sheldon and the students，people can find that the teachers language influenced the students and some students were trying to correct their own language.Also in the teaching procedure，the teacher always focused on students feedback and repeated the requirements or asked the questions again and again to ensure whether the students understood her to help these SL learners to get used to and improve their SL learning.For example，when she asked the students what they could do to help each other when they were talking about their ideas with their partners，no one answered her so she said that she was asking a question and repeated it again to make her intent clear and understood by the students.In this way，the students paid more attention to the teacher as well as their SL.

The interaction provides a forum for feedback，which serves to alert learners to problems providing then with opportunities to focus their attention on language.That is，interaction may prime learners to “search” for more information，to be more sensitive to future input （e.g.，uses of a word，structure，pronunciation，spelling），or to be more aware of their hypotheses about language （Gass，Susan & Mackey，Alison 2006）.In the class，Ms.Sheldon and the students discussed how and why body language helps their expression.In our daily life we can also realized that people always use body language when they cannot express themselves clearly，especially among the people who do not speak the same first language.By discussing this，students could focus on their language and get the opportunities to search more information and grasp more comprehensible input if that kind of conversation happens again and then develop their SL learning.

Negative evidence can lead learners to notice errors in their own speech （Gass，Susan & Mackey，Alison 2006）.Ms.Sheldon reminded the students of the tenses they should use when the students were working on their sentences and she also pointed students errors and guided them to correct.For example，she pointed one student error，“…this is in the past right？ So not ‘I am，‘I am is today…” and then the students said，“I was”.In this way，the students could be more aware of their uses of the word as well as the tenses and then pay more attention to their hypothesis about language.

3.Output

Output refers to the language that learners produce.Swain has argued that production “may force the learner to move from semantic processing to syntactic processing” and many researchers have claimed that output provides a forum for receiving feedback，which pushes learner to produce more accurate，appropriate，complex，and comprehensible forms.Swain has also suggested that output provides an opportunity for learners to test hypotheses about the target language，and modify them where necessary （cited from Gass，Susan & Mackey，Alison 2006）.In this case，the learner tests hypothesis by producing spoken language，which in turn takes the learner back to the process of assimilating changes to his or her grammar system （Block，David 2003，p.30）.If there is no output，there is no test and evaluation on input，thus SL learners could have no chance to check their language and could have no comprehensible input any more.That is the reason why many SL learners could not be able to use the second language after many years studying.

In the class，the students produced language in every step.In the first step，they produced language in words，and then in the second step produced language in spoken English by talking about their ideas with their partners using those words.In the third step，they produced language in written English by writing down 2 sentences using the past continuous tense and the simple past tense.In the fourth step，combined with previous 3 steps，they produced the language by telling their partners and the class their final stories in their own words.Every output stimulates the next output and the students were forced to move from semantic processing to syntactic processing from step to step.Also the process that students made mistakes and finally corrected mistakes in some steps or even in every step，provided the chance for the students to pay attention to their language，notice the difficulties and the problems the met in the learning procedure and stimulate the cognition of the SL learning.In this case，the SL learners have the opportunities to test hypothesis，assimilate the language and then produce more accurate，appropriate，complex and comprehensible language.

Conclusion

According to theories of input，interaction and output，people can find that the relationships among input，interaction and output are mutually complementary.Input is the precondition of interaction and output while output promotes the input and the interaction of language，which could increase the effectiveness of input and enhance the chance of the absorption of interaction.This adult ESL class gives us a picture of how the SL learners get information of the SL，absorb and digest the information，produce language and form their language system in their SL learning.

However 40 minutes could not conclude everything.Therefore in the current ESL teaching，input，interaction and output should be paid relatively equal attention.Teachers should recognize students level，chose the most appropriate materials for which would fit the majority of students in the class and enhance the quality of the language input to ensure students could get the comprehensible input.For most SL learners，they lack of enough confidence and feel afraid to communicate with others using SL，especially with native speakers.So teachers should lay emphasis on the students output.Besides the group work，the method of output in the classroom can be various such as discussion，debate，speech，presentation and interpretation or translation.However the major output during the class is focused on oral expression since there is limited time for written practice，so there could be some interesting written work for learners after class to arouse students interest and then reinforce the output of writing.

There is one last thing important that in order to receive a better effect of SL learning，teachers should help learners overcome the psychological block，form confidence，increase and protect their interest of expression and respect their efforts.In this way，SL learners could have the better chance to get comprehensible input，assimilate language during interaction and output more accurate and comprehensible second language.

References：

[1]Block，David 2003，The Social Turn in Second Language Acquisition，pp.26-30，Edinburgh：Edinburgh University Press.

[2]Gass，Susan & Mackey，Alison 2006，‘Input，interaction and output：an overview，AILA Review，Vol.19，Issue 1，pp.3-17.

[3]Li Chao 2013，The influence of Krashens input hypothesis on teaching college English listening in China，Studies in Literature and Language，Vol.6，No.3，pp.49-52.

作者简介：

杜岳青，女，1991年9月出生，澳大利亚迪肯大学国际关系专业研究生。