Input-based Instruction of English Personal Pronouns to Young Korean Learners

Abstract

The low input saliency of English personal pronouns causes persistent difficulties in second language acquisition despite their highly frequent nature. The present study aims to examine how different types of input-based instruction improve the learning of English personal pronouns in young learners. Grounded on the main tenets of the formal and functional approaches, we incorporated visual enhancement (VE) and a meaning-oriented task (MT) to input-based learning. A total of 87 young Korean elementary students were administered four types of instructional treatments: input-only, input-plus-VE, input-plus-MT, and input-plus-both. Results of the pre- and the posttest indicated that the most significant improvements were found for the students who received both VE and MT. This finding suggests that the acquisition of English personal pronouns is facilitated when L2 input is provided in conjunction with both formal and functional approaches.