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Abstract
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Despite the growing body of literature addressing the immediate primary and secondary effects of processing instruction (PI) and meaning output instruction (MOI) on L2 learners' performance on interpretation and production tasks at the sentence level, little is known about their delayed effects on their performance at the discourse level. Furthermore, the current body of research has predominantly centered on Roman languages and adult English native speakers, calling for further investigation into typologically different languages and different L2 learners. Despite the extensive research focusing on the primary effects of PI and output-based instructions (OBI) on Iranian ESL learners` performance, no study has examined their secondary effects. To address these issues, the current study examined the effects of PI and MOI on the acquisition of a primary target grammatical form (TGF) by teenage Iranian ESL learners to ascertain whether their effects could be transferred to a secondary TGF at both the sentence and discourse levels. Participants included 105 pre-intermediate Iranian ESL learners who were randomly assigned to three groups: PI, MOI, and a control group. The study followed the pretest-posttest randomized experimental design, measuring participants` interpretation and production abilities. It has been revealed that both instructional approaches significantly affected Iranian learners` interpretation of the primary TGF in the immediate posttest, although only PI had durable primary effects. On the contrary, both approaches had equal effects on learners` performance in the production tasks; but only the scores of the PI group were retained after eight weeks. Furthermore, only the PI group could transfer the effects of the training to the secondary TGF. While PI had significant positive immediate secondary effects on learners’ interpretation and production abilities, only its secondary effect on their interpretation of the TGF was long-lasting. The findings of this study revealed that only PI can change L2 learners` developing systems and the way they acquire the TGFs.
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