Introduction:

In foreign language teaching, input enhancement has been proposed as an implicit technique to direct the learners' attention toward specific linguistic items, as it allows them to focus on meaning and form at the same time.

Objective:

To investigate the effect of three typographic input highlighting marks on the intake of a target structure (present tense) and on the reading comprehension of 41 Chinese learners of Portuguese as a foreign language.

Methods:

Exploratory study. A pre-test/post-test design was adopted. Four versions of a text were prepared to compare three experimental groups with different input enhancement formats: [(i) capitalization, (ii) bold, and (iii) a combination of two typographical cues (bold and underlined)], as well as a control group (input flood).

Results:

No significant differences were detected between the groups, although the results showed a tendency towards a positive impact of the use of typographical cues vs. input flood. Reading comprehension was not affected by input enhancement.

Conclusion:

Input enhancement formats did not significantly benefit the intake of the target structure. Manipulation of input salience (input enhancement) and frequency increase (input flood) are redundant techniques in terms of their pedagogical impact.

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