An Empirical Study of Note Taking and Task Repetition on Noticing and EFL Writing

摘要

This paper set out to probe into the learning strategies that help promote Chinese college students' noticing and memory retention of targeted language through the mental process of input into intake. Three experimental groups-Group A, the control group (without note taking and task repetition), Group B-experimental group (with note taking and non-task repetition) and Group C-experimental group (with both note taking and task repetition) were involved. Through a five-stage writing task consisting of output production, comparison to the model text, writing rehearsal and two revisions (immediate rewriting and delayed rewriting), the paper examined what language features Chinese college students have noticed by taking notes, and how such noticing affected short-term and long-term memory retention. It was found that 80% language features that participants noticed in production, comparison and revision stage was lexical features; the multiple comparisons of writings in stage 3 revealed significant differences between Group A and Group B (p=0.002), Group A and Group C (p<0.001), but no significant differences found between Group B and Group C (p>0.05). The results indicate that note taking and task repetition help improve students' short-term and long-term memory.