Which instructional approach, associated with Bill VanPatten, gives learners explicit information about the language features to be learned and focuses practice on the comprehension of sentences or texts?

• A. Processing instruction
• B. Noticing hypothesis
• C. Recast
• D. Obligatory contexts

Answer: (A)

Processing instruction centers on guiding how learners process input and paying deliberate attention to form. In VanPatten’s approach, learners are given explicit information about the language features to be learned—so they know what form to look for and how it functions—and then they practice with tasks that require understanding sentences or texts, not just producing language. This means the focus is on comprehension first, with the form guided by direct information and brief explanations about how the feature works. The idea is that meaning-focused input becomes intake when learners attend to the relevant form, aided by explicit cues about what to notice. That combination—explicit feature information plus comprehension-centered practice—best matches the description in the question. Recast, the corrective feedback of a produced error; Noticing Hypothesis centers on noticing forms in input without necessarily providing explicit instruction; and Obligatory contexts aim to elicit production in contexts where a form is required.