PROCESSING INSTRUCTION AND MEANINGFUL OUTPUT-BASED INSTRUCTION:: Effects on Second Language Development

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of meaningful input- and output-based practice on SLA. First-semester Spanish students (n = 45) were assigned to processing instruction, meaningful output-based instruction, or control groups. Experimental groups received the same input in instruction but received meaningful practice that was input or output based. Both experimental groups showed significant gains on immediate and delayed interpretation and production tasks. Repeated-measures analyses of variance showed that overall, for interpretation, both experimental groups outperformed the control group. For production, only the meaningful output-based group outperformed the control group. These results suggest that not only input-based but also output-based instruction can lead to linguistic development.We thank Ron Leow, Alison Mackey, and Cristina Sanz for their continual support and valuable input throughout the various phases of this research and for their comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. Likewise, we express our gratitude to Bill VanPatten and the various anonymous reviewers for their comments on the manuscript. We also thank the Linguistics Department for the use of its laboratory and equipment during data collection and Ru San Chen for assistance with statistical analyses. Special thanks to Gorky Cruz and Cristina Sanz for the use of digital photographs. Any errors or omissions are ours alone.