Longitudinal study on teaching reduction to second language learners

We tested four groups of intermediate Dutch learners of French. The participants of three experimental groups followed 10 lessons of 30 minutes each. Two experimental groups received the same explicit instruction about reduced forms after which one group only practiced the comprehension of reduced forms (the Explicit Instruction Comprehension group; hereafter EIComp), while the other group practiced the production of reduced forms (the Explicit Instruction Production group; hereafter EIProd). The third experimental group was also exposed to reduced forms but only received grammar instruction (the Grammatical Instruction group; hereafter GramI). The last group, the control group (hereafter Control), did not follow any lessons.
The participants’ ability to comprehend reduced forms in context was tested at four different moments with four different cloze tests (hereafter, T0, T1, T2, T3): before, during, and after the lessons, as well as three months after the lessons had ended. At the end of the last test (T3), we verified whether the participants knew the words they had heard during all four tests (test labelled Expressions in the folders and documents).
At the start of the study, we first assessed the participants with a pre-test. The pre-test consisted of a verbal working memory test in Dutch, followed by a self-paced reading task, two grammar exercises, and one audio and one audio-visual comprehension tasks in French. The word document Files description.docx presents a timeline of the unfolding of the experiment, and details the content of each folder and file.
The consent forms templates, and the audio files for the cloze tests and pre-test, as well as their content are to be found under MATERIALS.
RAW DATA contains the raw output files.
DATA is the data we used for our statistical analyses.
All data files are accompanied by a word document named 'variables' which explains the names of the variables and their type.

本研究共招募四组以荷兰语为母语的中级法语学习者作为被试。其中三个实验组的被试均完成共计10课时、每课时30分钟的课程学习。其中两个实验组接受了完全相同的缩约形式（reduced forms）显性教学，随后一组仅开展缩约形式的理解练习（该组记为显性教学理解组，下文简称EIComp），另一组则开展缩约形式的产出练习（该组记为显性教学产出组，下文简称EIProd）。第三个实验组同样接触了缩约形式，但仅接受语法教学（该组记为语法教学组，下文简称GramI）。最后一组为控制组（下文简称Control），未参与任何课程学习。
我们通过四份不同的完形填空测试（下文分别记为T0、T1、T2、T3），在四个不同时间点测试被试在语境中理解缩约形式的能力：课程开始前、课程期间、课程结束时，以及课程结束三个月后。在最后一次测试（T3）结束时，我们还验证了被试是否掌握了四次测试中出现过的词汇（文件夹与文档中标记为"Expressions"的测试）。
在研究启动之初，我们首先通过预测试对被试进行评估。预测试包含荷兰语言语工作记忆测试、自定步速阅读任务、两项语法练习，以及两项法语任务：一项音频理解任务与一项音视频理解任务。名为Files description.docx的Word文档详细列出了本实验的实施时间线，并对每个文件夹与文件的内容进行了说明。
知情同意书模板、完形填空测试与预测试所用的音频文件及其相关内容，均可在MATERIALS文件夹中获取。RAW DATA文件夹存储原始输出文件。DATA文件夹存储了我们用于统计分析的实验数据。所有数据文件均附带名为"variables"的Word文档，该文档对各变量的名称与类型进行了解释说明。