Input-Based Task and Interlanguage Pragmatics: The effects of input-based task on the development of learners' pragmatic proficiency

The present study evaluates the relative effectiveness of three types of input-based instruction, comprehension-based instruction (proactive explicit information + the structured input task + reactive feedback), structured input instruction (the structured input task + reactive feedback), and consciousness-raising instruction (the consciousness-raising task + reactive feedback) for teaching English polite requestive forms, involving 60 Japanese learners of English. Treatment group performance was compared to that of a control group on the pre-tests, post-tests, and follow-up tests. The results of data analysis indicate: (a) The three treatment groups performed significantly better than the control group, but the comprehension- based instruction group did not maintain the positive effects of the treatment between the post- test and follow-up test in the listening test, and (b) there was a significant main effect for Test and for the highly imposed situation items, the listening test scores were the lowest for the three treatment groups, while the control group did not vary according to the testing methods.