Discourse and long-term effects of isolated and combined structured input and structured output on the acquisition of the English causative form

Abstract

The present study explores discourse and long-term effects of structured input (SI) and structured output when delivered in isolation or in combination on the acquisition of the English causative. Research investigating the effects of SI has indicated that it is the causative variable in the positive effects of processing instruction. To provide answers to the questions formulated in this study, one classroom experiment was carried out. Sixty-eight school-age Greek learners (aged 10–12) participated. The participants were randomly assigned to three groups: SI only group (n = 22); structured output only group (n = 22); combined SI and structured output group (n = 24). Subjects who scored lower than 50% in the pre-tests were included in the final data collection. Instruction lasted for 3 h. The design included a delayed post-tests battery (immediate, 3 weeks after instruction, 24 weeks after instruction). The assessment tasks included an interpretation and production task at discourse-level. The results indicated that learners who received SI both in isolation and in combination benefitted more than learners receiving structured output only. These two groups were able to retain instructional gains 3 weeks after instruction (short-term effects) in all assessment measures. Long-term effects after 6 months were also investigated.

KEYWORDS:

• Structured input
• structured output
• English causative
• discourse-level tasks
• short-term effects
• long-term effects

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the students who participated in the study. We also express our gratitude to the editorial board of Language Awareness and a number of anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alessandro Benati

Alessandro Benati is Head of Department at the American University of Sharjah. He has published ground-breaking research on the pedagogical framework called Processing Instruction.

Maria Batziou

Maria Batziou is a doctoral student at the University of Portsmouth. She is investigating discourse-level and online effects of processing instruction.