Effect of Explicit vs. Meaning-Focused Instruction on Implicit and Explicit Knowledge of Lexical Bundles: Focus on Research Articles’ Discussions in Applied Linguistics

Despite the evidenced discipline-specificity and significance of lexical bundles (LBs) for academic reading and writing, interventionist research into the development of implicit and explicit knowledge of LBs in applied linguistics research reports, specifically the discussion section, is limited. Employing a quasi-experimental design, this study investigated how exposure to LBs through meaning-focused instruction of discussion sections of applied linguistics’ research articles compared with their explicit instruction in terms of their effect on LBs’ implicit and explicit knowledge. For this purpose, 53 intermediate proficiency MA students of English Language Teaching, comprising 2 intact “academic writing” classes were designated as two experimental groups: explicit instruction group (EIG; N = 27) and meaning-focused instruction group (MFG; N = 26). EIG was explicitly instructed on the structure and function of graphically enhanced LBs contained in the discussion section of 13 research articles. MFG, on the other hand, received meaning-focused instruction on the same texts. A set of pre- and post-tests comprising a timed grammaticality judgment test (GJT) and an oral elicited imitation test for gauging implicit knowledge of LBs, and an untimed GJT and a metalinguistic knowledge test (MKT) for measuring explicit knowledge of them were designed and deployed. One-way ANOVA results indicated EIG’s significant gain over MFG in terms of explicit LBs knowledge for both untimed GJT and MKT; however, no significant difference was detected for implicit knowledge measures between the two groups. The findings underscore the potential of explicit instruction for the development of explicit knowledge of LBs, and have implications for academic English instruction.