AsiaTEFL Logo        The Journal of Asia TEFL
   
The Journal of Asia TEFL
Articles By Subject
Current Issue
Past Issues
Special Issue
Information of the Journal
Editorial Board
Submission Guidelines
Ethical Guidelines
Manuscript Submission
Journal Order
Search
Today 1,135
Total 5,469,566
Past Issues
Go List

Volume 19 Number 3, Autumn 2022, Pages 740-1140   


PDF Download
   

Exploring Web-based Contrastive Instruction to Enhance Deictic Referencing Accuracy in L2 Spoken Performance

    Matt Lucas


Learners whose first language lacks a system for acknowledging countability and associated plural forms may experience problems in English when surrounding sentences are deictically referenced (e.g., that/those; it is/they are). Moreover, noun phrases may be omitted or repeated, resulting in further inaccuracies. This exploratory study (N = 81) sought to establish whether a synthesis of input-based and output-based contrastive instruction delivered through an online medium would improve deictic referencing accuracy in a controlled speaking task among Japanese university EFL learners. The findings revealed that for deictic plural forms, no significant differences were observed between the experimental and control groups. However, for noun phrase omissions and repetitions, the experimental group displayed significant within-group improvements, suggesting partial effectiveness of the treatment. The study reiterates the resistant nature of linguistic features influenced by the underlying concept of countability, yet highlights the rich potential that web-based contrastive instruction may provide in enhancing grammatical accuracy.

Keywords: computer-assisted language learning, cross-linguistic influence, deixis, explicit instruction, spoken accuracy