ABSTRACT
Relative clauses are widely used to add supporting information to English sentences, especially in academic and professional writing. The grammar translation test examined students' understanding of relative pronouns as used in complex sentences. The elicitation test contained ten questions, each of which asked students to complete a sentence describing a particular picture. The pictures were designed to cause students to use the five types of relative pronouns twice each. Unlike the other two formats, this test did not prompt students to use relative pronouns; the students who did use relative pronouns decided to use them spontaneously. Therefore, the kind and frequency of relative pronouns used in this test illustrate whether the students' tendencies changed following meaning-order approach to pedagogical (MAP) instruction. On the composition test, the increase in the production of relative clauses was more prominent in the two lower groups than in the high-proficiency group.
