next or beyond next: effect of contrastive phrase-based treatment on stage gain across self-paced and more time-constrained tasks

this study explored the effect of contrastive phrase resynthesis instruction ongaining the teachability hypothesis stages in self-paced versus time-constrained oralproduction and recognition. three groups (i.e., 23 learners) of high beginner femalelearners in an english language institute were randomly selected from a cohort oflearners. one group received contrastive metalinguistic instruction on the conceptand structure of english phrases. the second group received the same instructiononly in english. the third group served as a comparison group. self-paced picturedifferences tests and time-constrained oral and gjts were used for collecting thedata. chi-square analyses through fisher’s exact test showed that the treatment,especially in its contrastive form, significantly contributed to gaining next, next + 1,and next + 2 stages in spontaneous oral production, but only to next + 1 and + 2stages in self-paced oral production and time-constrained recognition. thetheoretical implications of the findings are discussed.