Ahmadian, MJ orcid.org/0000-0003-3458-1854 (2020) Explicit and Implicit Instruction of Refusal Strategies: Does Working Memory Capacity Play a Role? Language Teaching Research, 24 (2). pp. 163-188. ISSN 1362-1688
Abstract
This study investigated the differential effects of implicit and explicit instruction of refusal strategies in English and whether and how the impacts of instruction methods interact with learners’ working memory capacity (WMC). 78 learners of English were assigned to three groups (explicit, implicit, and control). Implicit instruction was operationalized through input enhancement and provision of recast. In the explicit instruction group, participants received description and exemplification of refusal strategies and were provided with explicit corrective feedback. Prior to the treatment, all participants took WMC test, Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and completed a pragmatics comprehension questionnaire (CQ). Results revealed that explicit instruction was more effective than implicit instruction for both production and comprehension of refusals and that both implicit and explicit groups maintained the improvement in the delayed post-test administered two months later. In addition, whilst WMC scores were positively and strongly correlated with gains in the immediate and delayed post-test for both DCT and CQ in the implicit group, no meaningful relationship was found for explicit and control groups. The unique feature of this research is demonstrating that explicit instruction of refusal strategies equalizes learning opportunities for all learners with differential levels of WMC.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2018. This is an author produced version of a paper accepted for publication in Language Teaching Research. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications. |
Keywords: | attention; explicit and implicit instruction; L2 pragmatics instruction; refusal strategies; working memory capacity |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Education (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 30 May 2018 14:58 |
Last Modified: | 26 Mar 2020 16:42 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/1362168818783215 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:131375 |