The Effect of Explicit Information in Processing Instruction on Middle School Students' Acquisition of English Passive Voice

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of explicit information (EI) in the context of Processing Instruction (PI) as an alternative to traditional teaching methods. PI encompasses explicit information and structured input activity (SI). However, the effectiveness of EI has been a subject of debate. To address this question, grade-7 students were divided into three groups: the complete Processing Instruction group, the explicit information only group, and the structured input activity only group. Following pre-tests and the implementation of different teaching instructions on English passive voice, the scores of the participants were analyzed for the immediate post-test and delayed post-test. The results suggested that although EI did not accelerate the acquisition of the form-meaning connection of English passive voice, it was beneficial for final performance similar to SI. The complete Processing Instruction, however, proved to be the most effective. This study suggests a possible association between the effectiveness of EI and the relative difficulty of the target item for language learners. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of explicit information (EI) in the context of Processing Instruction (PI) as an alternative to traditional teaching methods. PI encompasses explicit information and structured input activity (SI). However, the effectiveness of EI has been a subject of debate. To address this question, grade-7 students were divided into three groups: the complete Processing Instruction group, the explicit information only group, and the structured input activity only group. Following pre-tests and the implementation of different teaching instructions on English passive voice, the scores of the participants were analyzed for the immediate post-test and delayed post-test. The results suggested that although EI did not accelerate the acquisition of the form-meaning connection of English passive voice, it was beneficial for final performance similar to SI. The complete Processing Instruction, however, proved to be the most effective. This study suggests a possible association between the effectiveness of EI and the relative difficulty of the target item for language learners. The limitations of the study include the potential impact of uncontrollable classroom distractions, the grouping of participants according to classes without accounting for variations in learning abilities, English proficiency levels, and the potential influence of self-directed learning outside the classroom.