The Effects of Textual Enhancement Under Explicit Versus Implicit Conditions on the Acquisition of English Collocations Among Saudi EFL Learners

Abstract

The current study aims to investigate the impact of textual enhancement in explicit versus implicit conditions on promoting learners’ knowledge of L2 collocations. Specifically, it seeks to examine the effectiveness of textual enhancement under explicit versus implicit conditions on promoting learners’ recognition and recall of L2 collocations. It also aims to identify whether there are differential effects of textual enhancement under the two different conditions (explicit versus implicit). A total of 73 middle-school students were assigned to three groups: a control group (n = 24), an implicit enhanced group (n = 25) and an explicit enhanced group (n = 24). The participants in the implicit enhanced group received textually enhanced input where the target collocations were boldfaced, and the enhanced explicit group received textually enhanced input as well as explicit instructions to pay attention to the enhanced collocations. The control group received unenhanced input. The statistical analysis revealed no significant differences among the three groups in neither the recognition nor the recall tasks. However, there was a significant impact of the treatment on the participants’ recall post-test scores in the control and implicit enhanced groups. The findings suggest that textual enhancement, even when explicit instructions are provided, is not sufficient to promote learners’ collocational knowledge when L2 collocations are not repeatedly encountered in the input. Other factors that could have hindered the effectiveness of textual enhancement, along with some pedagogical implications, are discussed in this dissertation.