This study attempts to determine whether the students who receive explicit instruction make more gains in their abilities to use topic-induced phrases in their writing than those who do not. Additionally, through interviews with a selected group of students from the treatment group, the study attempts to glean insights into the approaches learners use for written production of the target phrases. Data was collected from 54 ESL students in high-intermediate writing classes at an IEP who were assigned to the contrast (N=19) and treatment (N=35) groups based on their class enrollment. Over a period of four days, the treatment group received training on 15 target structures. The contrast group received no vocabulary instruction. Both groups were exposed to the target phrases through reading the same course materials and discussing them in class. The data included the scores participants received on the production of the target structures in their essays at the beginning and end of term. A repeated-measures ANOVA revealed that while both groups made improvement, it was the treatment group that made more significant gains in their abilities to produce topic-induced phrases than the contrast. The interviews' findings indicated the students' perceptions of the usefulness of the target structures may influence whether or not learners employ them in writing. The study findings suggest that explicit instruction is helpful for the writers' abilities to produce topic-induced phrases. These findings have implications for ESL writing pedagogy.