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Abstract
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A central role in processing instruction (PI) is occupied by the first noun principle, characterized in terms of a “Default processing strategy”. The first noun principle is the major cause of the misinterpretation of the English passive voice by Iranian ESL learners, which misleads their parsers by employing a predetermined pattern (Subject-Verb-Object). This study was therefore designed to elaborate on how PI can change the way in which Iranian EFL learners normally process the English passive voice. For this purpose, 80 pre-intermediate-level Iranian teenage learners of English were selected and then randomly assigned into 2 homogeneous groups: a PI group, and a control group. Two weeks before the beginning of the treatment, a general background information test and an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) were administered to assess learners’ knowledge of the passive voice. Subsequently, through a pretest- treatment-posttest design, the learners’ performance before and after the intervention was measured. The independent sample T-test was run for the pretest-posttest measures, yielding significant results indicating statistically significant differences between the means of the experimental group and the control group, demonstrating the main effect of the instruction. Despite the PI group showing significant improvement in both interpretation and production tests, the control group showed improvement in neither the interpretation test nor the production test. However, unequal gains on interpretation and production tests were made by the PI group (interpretation >production). The results of this study are in line with previous theoretical positions concerning the effectiveness of PI as a type of focus on form, which provides valuable implications for both Iranian EFL teachers and material developers.
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