How to select input?

Learner Spontaneous Attention in L2 Input Processing(Park & Han, 2007)

Why only on forms??

Learning about output hypothesis last time, I wondered why it focused on only forms. Thinking of my noticing the gap, I do not focus on forms, but mainly on meaningful CHUNKS (not a single grammatical unit). For example, when native speakers get on the bus, I prick my ears and listen to how they produce native-like sentences and how differently use vocabulary in different contexts.
I learned English grammar for years and years at middle and high school, so it is not too difficult to to make grammatically correct sentences, but they do not sound ‘right’ in some way. Therefore, it is not grammar but, the meaningful chunks that native speakers actually use, which makes me and native speakers have a huge gap, which I try to fill in by awareness. Similarly, when I struggle to say something, (noticing the hole?), it is due to the choice of vocabulary rather than grammar. How come I do not focus on forms while researchers are mainly talking about forms in learners’ noticing the gap, producing output and giving feedback?


– “Noticing(Ellis, 2002) is basically the idea that if learners pay attention to both the form and meaning of certain language structures in input, this will contribute to the internalization of the grammatical rules”.
- ‘Focus on form (Doughty&Williams, 1998a) whose central mission is about manipulating learner attention in order to facilitate learner noticing, and hence intake, of certain aspects of the TL.
-Noticing of target L2 form and has an effect on learners’ subsequent output (Jourdenais et al.1995)



Because of Learner-centered attention!!

This article (Park & Han, 2007), simply put, scratched my itchy spot, giving a clear answer to what I was confused. What input is converted into intake depends on so-called default processing. Learners’ attention is driven by their own perceptions about what is worth attending to, irrespective of the external intervention(Park & Han, 2007). This LEARNER-GENERATED ATTENTION and its awareness correlate, noticing (Schmidt, 1990), which perfectly makes sense to me. I was wondering why the gap should be on forms, but I realized that noticing the gap depends on learners’ current IL. It also explains that why I concentrate on the meaningful chunks while listening to native speakers. I do not find grammar difficult but I struggle with appropriate expressions, most of time.

- Lightbown(2000) ‘Even when forms are frequently present in classroom input, learners may filter them out because of characteristics of their L1 or their current interlanguage’
- Philp (2003) ‘Learners are biased to the input by their current interlanguage knowledge as well as by their natural orientation for meaning’

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Because of Salience and Knowledge of TL!!

As for input, the more I hear, the more I want to know. By the time I’ve heard more than three times, I get really curious and usually look up the dictionary. This refers to ‘salience’ in input. Focus-on-form researchers (Ellis, Swain?) seek to make the target features in the input salient (called ‘external salience’, generated by a teacher or researcher), and I, as a learner, seek to meaningful expressions in the input salient(called ‘internal salience’), according to ‘default processing’.

Furthermore, I was surprised and pleased when I was reading the lines from the article (Park and Han, 2007) - “Learners who have acquired some knowledge of the target language will adopt a meaning-based approach to input processing.” Again, it explained why I focus on meaning, not forms. After 20 years learning English, I put priority on meaning over forms. Overall, these two things (Learner-generated attention and TL knowledge-based interest to input) gave me a very clear answer.
But... I still have a question. According to Swain in Output hypothesis, output helps learners progress from SEMANTIC to SYNTACTIC processing over time -focusing on form, instead of meaning. Why is that opposite?

Typological distance between L1 and L2

The study(Park& Han, 2007) was conducted with two groups–30 native speakers of Japanese and 30 native speakers of English. Two experimental conditions were set up: Condition 1- with the zero-knowledge state to a Korean text and Condition 2–after exposure six words. The result shows that under condition1, both groups adopted a form-oriented approach to input processing, however, under condition 2, they differed in terms of the additional items they noticed according to typological distance. It confirms that L1 does affect L2 input processing, particularly in the early stage of learning. The L1-English group asked more questions on form and the L1-Japanese group asked more on the meaning.
Looking back my early stage of learning English, I remember that I had a hard time recognizing the grammatical class of word. It was hard to tell which word was noun, adjective, verb, etc. I took the vocabulary test and had to circle the correct world class. I just memorized every single word without understanding. It would have been a lot easier if I had known suffix.
Also, I remember that I giggled that I was able to call my parents, teachers by ‘you’ in English, because it sounded very rude to me. It took some time to adjust calling the older people that way. If the Koreans didn’t have respectful forms, I would have had no problem calling 'you' to older people.