Teaching Requestive Downgraders in L2: How Effective are Written vs. Oral Output-Based Tasks?

The present study examines the impact of focused tasks on the development of Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic competence. To this end, the researchers devised the dictogloss (DIG) as a written output-based task to explicitly raise learners’ awareness of the requestive downgraders. The researchers also administered the recast feedback during an oral output-based task to implicitly raise learners’ awareness of the target features. Prior to the experiment, 147 Iranian EFL learners and 43 American native English speakers were asked to participate in the study to help the researchers develop the instruments. To carry out the study, the researchers matched 60 Iranian EFL learners in two groups based on their scores on the Oxford Placement Test (2004). The groups were then randomly assigned to instructional conditions, namely the DIG task and the recast. Findings demonstrated that participants in both tasks preformed significantly better in the immediate and delayed posttests than in the pretest. The results also revealed that neither the effects of instructional treatment nor the effects of time were significant between the groups on the perception and production measures. Similarly, participants in both groups maintained the positive effects of the treatment in the delayed posttest on the same measures. For the recognition measure, although the effects of treatment were marginally significant in favor of the participants in the DIG task, they could not maintain the positive effects of treatment in the delayed posttest. This rendered the effect of time non-significant on this measure.