Next or Beyond Next: Effect of Contrastive Phrase-Based Treatment on Stage Gain Across Self-Paced and More Time-Constrained Tasks

This study explored the effect of contrastive phrase resynthesis instruction on gaining the teachability hypothesis stages in self-paced versus time-constrained oral production and recognition. Three groups (i.e., 23 learners) of high beginner female learners in an English language institute were randomly selected from a cohort of learners. One group received contrastive metalinguistic instruction on the concept and structure of English phrases. The second group received the same instruction only in English. The third group served as a comparison group. Self-Paced Picture Differences Tests and Time-Constrained Oral and GJTs were used for collecting the data. Chi-square analyses through Fisher’s Exact Test showed that the treatment, especially in its contrastive form, significantly contributed to gaining next, next + 1, and next + 2 stages in spontaneous oral production, but only to next + 1 and + 2 stages in self-paced oral production and time-constrained recognition. The theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.