Next or Beyond Next: Effect of Contrastive Phrase-Based Treatment on Stage Gain Across Self-Paced and More Time-Constrained Tasks

This study explored the effect of contrastive phrase resynthesis instruction ongaining the teachability hypothesis stages in self-paced versus time-constrained oralproduction and recognition. Three groups (i.e., ۲۳ learners) of high beginner femalelearners in an English language institute were randomly selected from a cohort oflearners. One group received contrastive metalinguistic instruction on the conceptand structure of English phrases. The second group received the same instructiononly in English. The third group served as a comparison group. Self-Paced PictureDifferences Tests and Time-Constrained Oral and GJTs were used for collecting thedata. Chi-square analyses through Fisher’s Exact Test showed that the treatment,especially in its contrastive form, significantly contributed to gaining next, next + ۱,and next + ۲ stages in spontaneous oral production, but only to next + ۱ and + ۲stages in self-paced oral production and time-constrained recognition. Thetheoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Keywords:

Phrase-Based Treatment , Contrastive Teaching , Self-Paced Task , TimeConstrained Task , Stage Gain