The Effect of Explicit Instruction through Combined Input-Output Tasks on the Acquisition of Indirect Reported Speech in English

Seyed Ehsan Afsahi,Ahmad Reza Lotfi

doi:10.5539/ijel.v6n7p59

Abstract

<p>Grammar is being rehabilitated (e.g., Doughty &amp; Williams 1998a) and recognized for what it has always been (Thornbury, 1997, 1998, cited in Burgess &amp; Etherington, 2002): an essential, inescapable component of language use and language learning. Few would dispute nowadays that teaching and learning with a focus on form is valuable, if not indispensable. What perhaps is still the subject of debate is the degree of explicitness such teaching and learning should display. The ultimate goal of any instruction is to make L2 learning implicit, like L1 (due to ease of access and automaticity of it). The current study examines the effect of explicit instruction on the participants’ acquisition of explicit and implicit grammatical knowledge in the case of indirect reported speech. The descriptive-survey method was used in this research. The results revealed that this type of instruction fosters both short- and long-term acquisition of explicit grammatical knowledge. However, the study could not foster the acquisition of implicit knowledge.</p>

Highlights

In recent years, the teaching of linguistic forms, especially grammar, continues to occupy a major place in language pedagogy
This study has demonstrated that explicit instruction together with input-output tasks resulted in the acquisition of the explicit knowledge of the target structure of the study
The study is supportive of the claims that have been advanced on behalf of form-focused instruction

Summary

Introduction

The teaching of linguistic forms, especially grammar, continues to occupy a major place in language pedagogy. The teacher needs to pay attention to form. There are a number of ways in which this can be accomplished and this is discussed later. Teachers in training need to develop a repertoire of options (e.g., input- or output-based) for addressing form in the context of communicative teaching (Ellis, Basturkmen, & Loewen, 2002). A brief but comprehensive discussion on the distinction between explicit and implicit knowledge and learning in two general fields of inquiry (i.e., cognitive psychology and SLA) was presented. There will be a brief overview of a recent approach (FoF) to instruction that this study concerns with, the rationale and theories behind it, and the options helping to accomplish this (such as input enhancement and output production). The gap that led this study to be conducted is illustrated

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion