Output Tasks, Noticing, and Learning: Teaching English Past Tense to Iranian EFL Students

Abstract

EFL Learners often have problems using the past tense accurately. In an attempt to solve their problem, this study was carried out to examine the effects of using two different types of output tasks on noticing and learning the English past tense. Sixty female school-age EFL learners were divided into groups of 18, 19, and 23 participants. A pretest was administered at the outset of the study, the scores of which proved that all the participants equally lacked the required accuracy in using the target structure. Therefore, five treatment sessions followed, during which the first two groups were given picture-cued writing tasks and reconstruction tasks respectively. The comparison group, however, did comprehension check-up tasks. Finally, a posttest was given. The results of the statistical analyses revealed that only the reconstruction group improved in their noticing of the target feature. However, both experimental groups equally promoted their learning of the form.