Abstract: This study aims to investigate, firstly, whether input enhancement is effective on learners’ noticing and acquisition of the target language forms and on the reading comprehension in SLA, and secondly, the reason why researchers draw different conclusions about the effect of input enhancement, by comparing and analyzing the studies at home and abroad. Among input enhancement techniques, textual enhancement and rule-based instruction are of great importance in language learning and numerous related empirical studies have been conducted, so the two kinds of techniques are chosen. The results show that the effectiveness of input enhancement has been confirmed in most studies, so the author suggests that input enhancement should be applied to language teaching.
Key words: input enhancement; textual enhancement; rule-based instruction; SLA
摘要：本文就国内外关于输入强化的重要研究进行整理与对比分析，一方面讨论输入强化在二语习得中的有效性，另一方面是为了找出导致研究者们就输入强化对学习者目标语的注意和习得以及对阅读理解的作用得出不一致结论的原因。在众多强化方式中，作者选取了被研究较多的关于文本强化与规则讲解的研究。作者发现大部分研究认为两种强化方式对语言理解、注意与习得都是有积极作用的，因此输入强化应该被更多的用于课堂教学中。
关键词：输入强化；文本强化；规则讲解；二语习得
In SLA literature, more and more attention has been paid to the effect of noticing on SLA since Schmidt proposed Noticing Hypothesis. Input enhancement (hereinafter referred to as IE), as an external attention-drawing device, was put forward by Sharwood Smith in 1981, and has aroused many researchers’ interests. Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the potential facilitative effects of different types of IE techniques, but they obtained much more complex results. Therefore, this study will briefly introduce some related theories and then review the previous research undertaken both at home and abroad. Then, by comparing and analyzing these studies, the author will find out, firstly, whether IE is effective in learners’ noticing and acquisition of the target language forms and in the reading comprehension in SLA, and secondly, the reasons which lead to the mixed results. At the end of the study, implications and suggestions for further study are included.
