The effect of awareness-raising and explicit instruction of compensatory strategies on young learners’ EFL oral and written production

Abstract

This article presents a study intended to analyze the effects of awareness-raising and explicit strategy instruction on the performance of young learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in a multilingual context. In particular, we focused on the teaching of compensatory strategies (CpSs), a subset of communication strategies (CSs), and examined the immediate and delayed effects of explicit instruction of conceptual CpSs on young learners’ oral and written object description in English. Students’ description appropriateness and CpS use were assessed at three different times during the study. Three intact classes of eleven-year-old learners in a Spanish primary school participated in the study: Two classes formed the experimental group (n = 43) and the third class served as the control group (n = 20). Object description was part of the learners’ EFL syllabus, but only the experimental group received explicit instruction in identifying and using CpSs. Results revealed a positive effect of awareness-raising and explicit instruction of CpSs on overall description appropriateness in oral production immediately after intervention. Moreover, with regard to specific strategies, the use of superordinate appears to be the CpS that benefits the most from instruction.