چکیده:
The present study investigated comparatively the impact of two types of input enhancement (i.e. textual vs. compound enhancement) on developing grammar ability in Iranian EFL setting. Sixty-five female secondary high school students were selected as a homogenous sample out of about a 100-member population based on Nelson language proficiency test. Then, their grammar ability was measured based on a researcher-made diagnostic test prior to the experiment. The sample was randomly divided into two equal groups; one group received text-enhancement-based instruction of grammar, while the other received compound-based enhancement. Finally, they received an achievement test of grammar as a posttest to measure their progress in light of two different types of input enhancement mechanisms. The pertinent statistical analyses of the results indicated that a) the effect of textual enhancement-based instruction of grammar is not significantly meaningful, while b) the compound enhancement-based instruction has significant effect on learning grammatical structures. Comparatively speaking, therefore, c) compound enhancement-based instruction of grammar is more significantly effective than that of textual in developing grammar ability. It can be safely concluded that grammar instruction and its resultant development are subject to intervention type, which, pedagogically, bears promising messages for both teachers and syllabus designers to incorporate parameters of input enhancement in both teaching and materials development, respectively.
خلاصه ماشینی:
In this respect, Nassaji and Fotos (2004), investigating the role of grammar instruction in SLA, reevaluated it as an important component in language teaching for four reasons: (1) According to the noticing hypothesis, learning language without some degree of consciousness is problematic and for learning language, awareness at the level of noticing is necessary (Schmidt, 1990), (2) L2 learners should pass through developmental sequences, (3) Some teaching approaches (such as CLT) focus on meaning- focused communication and not on grammar, and (4) Grammar has positive effect on developing target language forms (p.
Relying on this rationale on one hand and motivated by the claims in favor of effect of input saliency on input noticing and thereby subsequent positive output in grammatical development on the other (Izumi, 2002; Jourdenais, Ota, Stauffer, Boyson & Doughty, 1995) , this study was designed to comparatively and empirically investigate their role in developing grammar ability in order to see whether they are significantly and individually effective and, if so, which one is more effective and thereby can lead to further developments of grammar knowledge REVIEW OF LITERATURE Concerning the focus on form/grammatical instruction, three common options are worthy of consideration: focus on forms, focus on meaning, focus on form (Long, 2000).
Leow, Nuevo, and Tsai (2003) conducted a research on the role of textual enhancement and type of linguistic item on the second language learners’ comprehension and intake.
In another study, Berent and Kelly (2008) investigated the efficiency of visual input enhancement in teaching of grammatical forms to deaf ESL learners.