Individual and Collaborative Output Tasks: Effects on the Acquisition of English Inversion Structures

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Allameh Tabataba’i University

2 Islamic Azad University, Garmsar Branch,

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of individual and collaborative outputbased
focus-on-form instructional tasks on the acquisition of English inversion
structures by EFL learners. Moreover, it explored the developmental trend of
learners’ inversion acquisition. To this end, 60 homogeneous EFL learners were
assigned to individual and collaborative output groups. They were exposed to texts
encompassing inversion structures for 12 instructional sessions. The task included
dictogloss in both groups where the texts were reconstructed either individually or
collaboratively. A pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest design was used to examine
the effects of the 2 tasks. The learners’ process of acquisition was examined by
parallel tests of inversion development. Results showed that collaborative task
implementation was advantageous over individual task performance in both
immediate and delayed posttests. Results did not reveal a linear additive process for
the collaborative output group; however, the findings suggest that collaborative
language production can enhance grammatical acquisition.

Keywords