A Comparative Study of the Effects of Structured Input and Production-Based Tasks in the Development of Request Modifiers

This study investigated the differential impacts of the structured input (SI) and output-based instruction (OI) taskson the improvement of the receptive and productive knowledge of request modifiers. Eighty-three EFL learners were randomly assigned to the SI, OI, and control groupsthrough a quasi-experimental research design. Over a 5-week course, the explicit metapragmatic instruction on the target structures was delivered to all the groups; however, whereas the SI group was exposed to the SI tasks, the OI group was engaged in the dialogue-reconstruction task. Results of ANCOVA and paired comparisons showed the effectiveness of both instructions on L2 pragmatic knowledge. Whereas the SI was more effective in fostering the receptive knowledge of the target structures, the OI better improved the productive knowledge. Moreover, the comprehension gains were not retained in the follow-up test, but the production gains appeared to be durable between the posttest and the follow-up test.