The Role of Instruction: An Update

Abstract

Does instruction make a difference? This was the original question of a paper written by Michael Long (1983) in the 80s. Since then, scholars and practitioners have been debating on whether instruction makes a difference in the acquisition of language properties such as morphology and syntax. Contemporary theories have addressed this question by taking different positions around the role and effects of instruction. Researchers have investigated the effects of a number of different instructional treatments (e.g., textual enhancement, processing instruction, recasts). Overall, the main findings from empirical research on the effects of instruction seem to indicate that there are two main positions: (i) instruction has a limited and constrained role; (ii) instruction might have some beneficial effects (not on the route but on the rate of acquisition). Several key questions (VanPatten, Smith, & Benati, 2019) have been raised in this field about the nature and role of instruction and on what we really measure with instruction (explicit or implicit knowledge?).

‘English Language Teaching Now and How It Could Be’ Geoff Jordan and Mike Long (2022)

“…The arguments presented in the book echo the ones of VanPatten (2015) and Benati (2024) on the negative consequences in language teaching due to the lack of understanding from instructors about how language actually develops in learners' minds. This lack of knowledge has perpetuated wrong and misleading beliefs among language teachers leading to the use of ineffective language pedagogy in the classroom and inappropriate language testing practices.…”