New Research on the Role and Effects of Structured Input in Assessing the Nature of Language Processing

Dear Colleagues,

The Editor

Alessandro Benati is a professor at University College Dublin (Ireland). He has held positions in several British and overseas institutions. He is known for his work in second language acquisition, and he has published ground-breaking research on the pedagogical framework called processing instruction. His research on processing instruction has been recently driven by the use of new online measurements (e.g., eye tracking, self-paced reading, reaction times). Alessandro has coordinated national and international high-impact research projects that have been influential in determining educational policy and had an impact in providing effective language teacher training programmes. He is author and co-author of several research monographs and peer-reviewed articles in high-ranking journals, and editor and co-editor of book series and scientific journals such as He was a member of the subpanel for Modern Languages and Linguistics for the Research Excellence Framework for England (REF 2021) and is Honorary Professor at Your SJ University (UK), University of Hong Kong, and Visiting Professor at Anaheim University (USA).

Goal of the Special Issue

The idea for this Special Issue generates from the 30^th anniversary of research measuring the relative effects of processing instruction and its components (structured input). At this particular moment in time, our attention is now turning to further assessing the effects of structured input using not only offline methods but online tests, such as self-paced reading and eye-tracking, to measure in-depth language processing (Benati, 2017; 2021). The main purpose of this Special Issue is to consolidate and extend previous findings in this field by publishing recent research which investigates the effects of structured input, particularly in the following three major areas (VanPatten, 2015):

1. online methods to better assess the effects of structured input on language processing;
2. micro-issues related to structured input such as frequency of tokens, effectiveness of referential and affective activities;
3. the effects of structured input considering a number of individual differences such as aptitude, age, and motivation.

This Special Issue will provide an update on research on the effects of structured input and present groundbreaking empirical research using both offline and online measurements. The Special Issue will also offer ideas for future research in this field.

Relevance to current research

The role and effects of structured input in second language acquisition have been measured in different contexts, population, languages, and linguistic features, which show that processing is affected by numerous problems.  Most of the research clearly indicates that structured input has an effect on L2 learners’ accuracy in processing the target features under investigation and on the overall L2 learners developing system. The research presented in this Special Issue will provide new data investigating the importance of structured input in language development.

References

Benati, A. (2017). Classroom-oriented research: Processing Instruction (findings and implications). Language Teaching, 52(3), 343-359.

Benati, A. (2021). Input processing and processing instruction: The acquisition of Italian and Modern Standard Arabic. Benjamins Publishing.

VanPatten, B. (2015). Foundations of processing instruction. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 53(3), 91-109.

Prof. Dr. Alessandro Benati
Guest Editor

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• input processing
• structured input
• processing instruction