Grammar Acquisition and Processing Instruction

This book establishes a unique line of research within the Processing Instruction model by assessing the transfer-of-training effects of this approach to grammar instruction on how learners make form-meaning connections. It examines the results of three studies investigating secondary and cumulative effects in French, Italian and English. Research on Processing Instruction has so far investigated the primary effects of Processing Instruction. In this book the results of a series of experimental studies investigating possible secondary and cumulative effects of Processing Instruction on the acquisition of French, Italian and English as a second language will be presented. The results of the three experiments have demonstrated that Processing Instruction not only provides learners the direct or primary benefit of learning to process and produce the morphological form on which they received instruction, but also a secondary benefit in that they transferred that training to processing and producing another morphological form on which they had received no instruction.