Intervention

Having finished the pretest session, this study proceeded into the intervention

phase, which involved three different treatments on three groups, corrective feedback,

input enhancement and processing instruction.

IE (input enhancement): After the pretest, each participant in the IE group was

given a handout of a short model passage with the target structure (the past tense)

enhanced for saliency by using bold font and italicizing:

Ex. The smell of grilled chicken reached Sarah’s nostrils as she entered the house. It was almost supper time and Sarah’s mother greeted her from the kitchen wearing an apron. Sarah approached her mother and

(2) (4)

asked her timidly if she could have a cat. (Excerpt, for comprehensive content, please refer to appendix G)

After the learners read the passage, their comprehension was briefly checked. If

there was anything that the learners did not understand, clarification of the meaning

was carried out, using English. This clarification of meaning was confined to the

content of the passage, rather than the linguistic knowledge or the past tense. This was

to ensure that the learners could have more attentional/processing resources available

for the form. The handout was then collected back, before the post intervention was

conducted.

CF (corrective feedback): The learners’ writing pieces in the pretest were

provided with direct CF. The misused target structure (the past tense) was underlined,

and the correct form was written right above/below the error:

Ex. The smell of grilled chicken reached Sarah’s nostrils as she enter the house. It was almost supper time and Sarah’s mother greet her from the kitchen.

The writing pieces were then handed back to the learners in the intervention

session. After reading their original work with CF, the learners were allowed a brief

session in which they could query the teacher about the writing. Finally, their original

pieces were collected before the post intervention was conducted.

entered

greeted

PI (processing instruction): During the treatment, a model passage was given, with

instructions and activities focused on communicative purposes.

Ex. Gary was an intern in HSNU 8-9 years ago. Now he is a formal teacher in First MankaSenior High (HJSH). Find out what he did in HSNU and what he does in HJSH.

The learners’ attention was shortly redirected to the target form. When instructing

the target form, there were slides for teaching the past tense, with specifically

designed handouts whose content corresponded to that of the slides, thus convenient

for learners’ quick visual reference:

Ex.

1. Past tense

It is used to refer to events that happened in the past.

The past means any time before the moment …“NOW.”

“Now” is not an hour, not a minute, not a second. “Now”

is fleeting.

The instruction of the target form was aligned with the principles of PI, with three

procedural steps. The first was demonstrating the explicit information of the target

form:

Ex.

2. Past tense is used…

…when the action is before the moment you utter:

Mom: How is your homework going?

Johnny: I just finished it.

The second was informing the learners of the non-optimal processing strategy.

Ex.

3. Students’ non-optimal processing strategy Applying simple present tense to every verb.

Reason 1: In Chinese, there is no such concept of past tense for verbs.

Reason 2:When writing, students seek one-to-one correspondence between Chinese verb and English verb…and thus ignore the past tense.

The final step included two kinds of structured input activities, referential and

affective, which were designed to push the learners away from less optimal processing

strategies, toward the optimal one. In referential structured input activities, a text was

read to the students. After each sentence followed a comprehensive question, to which

the students were encouraged to voice out their answers. The correct answer was not

given immediately, so as to allow students time to process the target form, under the

uncertain circumstances created by different answers.

Ex.

teacher in First MankaSenior High (HJSH). Find out what he did in HSNU and what he does in HJSH.

1. As an intern teacher, Gary used to get up at 5:30, but he gets up at 7:30 as a formal teacher.

Question: Was Gary an early bird in HSNU?

2. And, he always rides his scooter to school.

Question: Does Gary take a bus to school?

3. Due to his heavy obligation as a formal teacher, he buys his breakfast on his way to school, just to save him some time for other school obligations.

Question: Was Gary an early bird in HSNU? What’s Gary’s strategy to buy him more time?

(For complete details of the text, please refer to appendix H)

Following the referential structured input activities, the affective structured input

activities allowed students to more openly express themselves, using the target

structure:

Ex.

1. Is your life in senior high school different from life in junior high?

Write down your own comparison, and interview 2~3 classmates about theirs. (For complete details of the SI, please refer to appendix H)

After the affective structured input activities were completed, the treatment phase,

in which there was the processing instruction, was completed. After the instruction,

the handouts were collected before the post intervention was conducted.