The Effects Of Processing Instruction And Meaning-based Output Instruction On The Acquisition Of English Attributive Clauses

In the field of Second Language Acquisition,promoting grammar acquisition is one of the major concerns of researchers.In recent years,research has focused on the effects of Processing Instruction(PI)and Meaning-based Output Instruction(MOI)on the acquisition of L2 grammar.However,no consistent conclusions have been reached and the main issue focuses on the effects of PI and MOI at production level.In addition,English attributive clauses are one of the focuses of grammar teaching and effective instructions are needed to guide the teaching of this grammatical structure.Therefore,this study explores the effects of PI and MOI on the acquisition of English attributive clauses and then it compares the relative effects of these two instructions.The research questions include:(1)what are the effects of PI on EFL learners’ acquisition of English attributive clauses as measured on the production task at sentence level?(2)what are the effects of MOI on EFL learners’ acquisition of English attributive clauses as measured on the production task at sentence level?(3)what are the relative effects of PI and MOI on EFL learners’ acquisition of English attributive clauses as measured on the production task at sentence level?A total of 123 second-year non-English major students from Zhengzhou University participate in the experiment that lasts for 5 weeks.They are from three parallel classes and are of the same proficiency level in English.The three classes are randomly assigned to the PI group(42),the MOI group(41)and the control group(40).During the experiment,two experimental groups received the same grammar explanation and appropriate processing strategies about English attributive clauses.Then,the PI group was engaged in structured input activities while the MOI group was exposed to structured output activities.However,the control group received no instruction about English attributive clauses.Assessment tasks consist of the pretest,the immediate posttest and the delayed posttest after two weeks of treatment.All three tests are carried out at sentence level.The results show that in the immediate posttest,both the PI and MOI groups perform significantly better than the control group and there is no significant difference between these two experimental groups,indicating that PI and MOI equally facilitate learners’ linguistic development of English attributive clauses in the short term and the difference between these two instructions is not significant.In the delayed posttest,although the scores of the PI group and the MOI group show a decline,compared with the control group,these two groups make significant improvement.That is,the positive effects of PI and MOI are retained over time.Moreover,the MOI group significantly outperforms the PI group in the delayed posttest and the results indicate that MOI has a better effect on learners’ linguistic development.This study has both theoretical and pedagogical implications.Theoretically,this study enriches the investigation about the effects of PI and MOI,showing that MOI is more effective than PI on learners’ acquisition of English attributive clauses.Additionally,this study has implications for foreign language grammar teaching.When teaching grammar,teachers should choose the activities that push students to make correct form-meaning connections and manage to enable students to attend to form and meaning in a meaningful context.