ABSTRACT
This chapter investigated the effectiveness of guided induction (GI) and deductive instruction (DI), provided in the computer-assisted language learning medium, on the L2 development of complex Chinese ba structures. Learning outcomes were measured by both receptive (grammaticality judgment) and productive (controlled oral production) tasks, while learners’ cognitive processes were tapped via think-aloud. Results showed that both experimental groups (GI and DI) improved substantially after instruction and retained their learning after one week, outperforming the Control group. Moreover, the GI group exhibited greater learning outcomes than the DI group and maintained its edge over time, with the edge being more obvious in productive than receptive tasks. Analyses of think-aloud protocols revealed that participants employed deep cognitive processing during GI. From a pedagogical perspective, the current findings lend further support to the great potentials of computer-assisted guided induction in teaching problematic L2 grammatical structures.
