Do Different Textual Enhancement Formats Have Differential Effects on the Intake of English Subjunctive Mood?

This research was inspired by Simard’s (2009) study on the differential effects of textual enhancement on the noticing and intake of English plural markers. This study investigated the differential effects of different textual enhancement formats (typographical cues) on the intake of English subjunctive mood among EFL learners in an Iranian context. The participants were 114 female upper-intermediate learners of English in an English institute. A reading text was prepared for five experimental and one control group. For each group the target structure was enhanced differently (underline, bold, italic, back ground, and choice) in the text and for the control group the passage was intact. The last two experimental formats, i.e., back ground and choice, were created by the present researchers to examine their effectiveness on the intake of the target structure. ANOVA analysis and Scheffe post hoc test were applied to analyze the data. Final results revealed that, in comparison with other formats, underline textual enhancement format was more effective in inducing the intake of target structure. However, back ground and choice did not prove to be effective textual enhancement formats.