Abstract

Many empirical studies carried out to test the three major functions of the Comprehensible Output Hypothesis proposed by Swain lend some support to the Hypothesis in one way or another. This study aims to investigate whether giving the Chinese EFL learners an opportunity for oral output encourages them to notice their linguistic problems in oral output, how they solve these linguistic problems, whether output promote their accurate use of linguistic forms and whether the resolutions they achieve in the reconstruction are retained in their later production. Results of this study are derived from a quasi-experiment designed for this research and show that output prompts the Chinese EFL learners to notice the gaps in their interlanguage and has a positive impact on the acquisition of language forms. Some suggestions are also made to the EFL teaching and learning.

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