Effects of Syntactic Alignment on Iranian EFL Learners’ Production of Double and Prepositional Object Constructions

Syntactic alignment refers to the tendency for speakers to produce a syntactic structure that appeared in recent discourse, as opposed to an equally acceptable alternative. This quasi-experimental study was intended to investigate effects of syntactic alignment on the production of double and prepositional object constructions among Iranian EFL learners. 80 EFL learners were chosen from two intact groups: one experimental (n = 40) and one control (n = 40). 60 experimental pictures were used for both the researcher and participants (30 pictures for each). First, the researcher made sure that the participants were familiar with the target structure, as the study was focused on the production of the structure in question. The experimental group was primed for the structure as the researcher provided the description, whereas the control group received no prime for the target structure. Results showed that the participants of the experimental group outperformed those of the control group regarding the production of the target structure. Results of the study were in line with previous research on syntactic alignment for production of grammatical structures.