The Effects Of Textual Enhancement And Its Formats On Acquisition Of English Passive Voice And Reading Comprehension By Chinese EFL Learners

Textual enhancement, as a kind of implicit input enhancement technique, has attracted alot of theoretical and empirical research onits efficacy in promoting vocabulary acquisitionunder meaning based classes at home over the past few decades. Nevertheless, few studiesinvestigate its efficacy on grammar learning. To close this gap, the current study investigatesthe effects of textual enhancement on Chinese EFL learners’ acquisition of English passivevoice and reading comprehension. Also, it is our concern whether the two different textualenhancement formats (bolding vs. a combination of underlining, capitalizing and bolding)have differential effects upon the participants’ form acquisition and meaning comprehension.The participants in this study were99non-English major students from three intactclasses in Guangdong Teachers College of Foreign Language and Arts. Each class wasrandomly assigned to one of the threegroups: Group A, which received textually enhancedreading materials through bolding, capitalizing and underlining; Group B, which receivedtextual enhanced reading materials through bolding; and Group C, which is the control groupand received unenhanced reading materials. Their acquisition of English passive voice andreading comprehension performance were tested both before and after the treatment. Thewhole experiment lastedfor a month.The data gained from the experiment was analyzed by one-way ANOVA and a pairedt-test. The results show that textual enhancement has positive effects on the subjects’acquisition of English passive voice while not hindering their reading comprehension. To putit another way, textual enhancement can lead to a balanced development in both formacquisition and meaning comprehension. Besides, the two different textual enhancementforma ts do not make significant differences upon participants’ form acquisition and meaningcomp rehension. The findings are discussed in light ofthe Noticing Hypothesis, the nature oftextual enhancement technique and the tension between attention to meaning and attention toform as well as the potential different saliency of different textual enhancement formats.The study proves the effectiveness of textual enhancement in promoting grammarteaching under meaning based classes and provides practical guidance for English teaching and learning.