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The effects of various combinations of form-focused instruction techniques on the acquisition of English articles by second language learners of English
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Abstract:
Although English articles (the/a(n)) are two of the most frequently occurring words in the language, second language (L2) learners of English tend to exhibit extraordinary difficulty acquiring them. Uniquely resistant to instruction and often overlooked due to a lack of inherent meaning, articles are a suitable linguistic target for form-focused instruction (FFI), an approach that has demonstrated its efficacy over decades of research, across multiple domains of instructed L2 acquisition. With the aim of integrating attention to form into communicative L2 instruction, FFI encompasses numerous instructional techniques that promote various types of linguistic processing that contribute to L2 learning. The current study in particular focuses on three proactive FFI techniques—input enhancement, metalinguistic explanations, and practice—that sequentially facilitate noticing, awareness, and practice, respectively (Lyster, 2007, 2017; Ranta & Lyster, 2018). Targeting English articles, an experimental study was conducted to measure the differential effects of various combinations of the three FFI techniques, in order to examine the benefits attributable to each technique and its corresponding linguistic processing. Forty-six L2 learners of English were randomly assigned to four conditions: input enhancement only (n = 12); input enhancement and metalinguistic explanations (n = 11); input enhancement, metalinguistic explanations, and practice (n = 11); and a control condition (n = 12). The L2 learners each completed six hours of online English lessons. The three treatment groups received instruction on English articles according to their respective condition, while the control group received general instruction with no focus on articles. The participants’ knowledge of English articles was measured by four tasks (i.e., grammaticality judgment task, metalinguistic knowledge task, elicited imitation task, and picture-description task) in a pretest, an immediate posttest, and a delayed posttest. Results showed that the group that received input enhancement and metalinguistic explanations exhibited clear and durable gains in the metalinguistic knowledge task after the lessons. Furthermore, a subset of participants who benefitted the most from the instructional treatment revealed two factors in common, which were their article-less native languages and a high level of participation during the lessons. Based on these results, the present study contributes meaningfully to the current understanding of FFI and the L2 acquisition of English articles. In addition, it seeks to bring L2 research and L2 pedagogy one step closer together by offering evidence-based insights that further inform instructed L2 acquisition.
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Keyword:
English articles; form-focused instruction; instructional techniques; second language acquisition; second language instruction
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URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10464/15742
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| 2 |
underlying reasons for the difficulties in use of the English articles for EFL learners: an analysis based on the learners’ experiences
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In: Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 420-434 (2021) (2021)
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| 3 |
Formulating the direction of a study: Variations across three epistemological traditions in Information Systems
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In: Ibérica, Iss 42, Pp 191-218 (2021) (2021)
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| 4 |
A critical analysis of the use of passives and relative clauses in Fresh water Ecology research articles
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In: LFE: Revista de lenguas para fines específicos, ISSN 1133-1127, Vol. 27, Nº 1, 2021, pags. 140-156 (2021)
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| 5 |
The introduction section of research articles in English and Turkish: The case of educational sciences – a preliminary study
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In: Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol 6, Iss 1, Pp 119-140 (2020) (2020)
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| 6 |
Authorial voice in academic writing: A comparative study of journal articles in English Literature and Computer Science
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In: Ibérica, Vol 39, Pp 215-242 (2020) (2020)
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| 7 |
Authorial voice in academic writing: A comparative study of journal articles in English literature and computer science
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In: Ibérica: Revista de la Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos ( AELFE ), ISSN 1139-7241, Nº. 39, 2020, pags. 215-242 (2020)
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| 8 |
Say "Oui" to "We": A Longitudinal Analysis of Pronouns and Articles in French and English
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In: Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection (2019)
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Linguistic Variations across Disciplines: A Multidimensional Analysis of Pakistani Research Articles ...
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Linguistic Variations across Disciplines: A Multidimensional Analysis of Pakistani Research Articles ...
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Verschmelzungen von Präposition und Artikel im Deutschen und ihr Erwerb von DaF-Lernern ...
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Verschmelzungen von Präposition und Artikel im Deutschen und ihr Erwerb von DaF-Lernern
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| 13 |
Lexical Bundles in Argumentative Essays by Native and Nonnative English-Speaking Novice Academic Writers
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In: Applied Linguistics and English as a Second Language Dissertations (2018)
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Corpus of News on the Web (NOW) - May 2018 ; Corpus of News on the Web
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Corpus of News on the Web (NOW) - April 2018 ; Corpus of News on the Web
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Corpus of News on the Web (NOW) - March 2018 ; Corpus of News on the Web
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Genre analysis and transitivity analysis of dental research article abstracts: Thai and international journals ...
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| 19 |
The Integration of Linguistic and Non-Linguistic Information in Second Language Sentence Processing.
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| 20 |
An exploratory study of NNES graduate students’ reading comprehension of English journal articles
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Chen, Kate Tzu-Ching. - : University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2017. : Center for Language & Technology, 2017
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