The Effects of Explicit and Implicit Instructional Techniques on Iranian EFL Learners’ Comprehension and Production of Lexical Collocations

To investigate the effect of explicit and implicit techniques of presentation on Iranian adult upper-intermediate learners’ comprehension and production of lexical collocations, a sample of 180 participants at four major English language institutes in Qazvin were presented with six different implicit and explicit instructional techniques. Before the treatment, the researchers administered a pre-test including 160 multiple-choice items to make sure that the participants had no prior knowledge of the target collocations. The participants were then randomly assigned to two groups, and each group received instruction based on one of the treatment conditions: explicit or implicit presentation techniques. At the end of the treatment period, a comprehension and a production test of lexical collocations were administered. The obtained data were analyzed using independent samples t-test procedures. The results indicated no significant difference between the effects of implicit and explicit techniques on the comprehension and production of lexical collocations. The findings of this study may have implications for learners, teachers, and syllabus designers.

Explicit instruction, implicit instruction, lexical collocations