Implicit and explicit instruction in L2 learning

34 unique sample studies (11 carried over from Norris & Ortega 2000, 23 published 1999-2011)

Second-language learners across the included studies; adult and university learners dominate

An explicit update of Norris & Ortega restricted to studies that DIRECTLY compared explicit and implicit instructional treatments, which is a cleaner contrast than the original meta-analysis's mixture of treatment-versus-control and treatment-versus-treatment comparisons. Published as a book chapter in Studies in Bilingualism.

Explicit instruction was found to be more effective than implicit instruction overall, with the difference examined across several moderator variables. The direction of Norris & Ortega's central claim survives a fifteen-year update on a partly new corpus.

Low as a threat to the within-study comparisons.

This IS the replication of Norris & Ortega on the explicit-implicit contrast, and it succeeds in direction. Together with Spada & Tomita and Kang et al. it makes "explicit instruction beats purely implicit exposure for target structures" one of the better-replicated claims in applied linguistics - on treatment-aligned measures.