Preemptive and reactive focus-on-form instruction : effect on learning parallel grammatical structures

Abstract EN

The present study set out to investigate the differential effect of focus-on-form (FonF) instruction.

Two research questions were raised: 1) Does FonF instruction,both preemptive and reactive, have a differential effect on learners' interlanguage? 2) Are shortterm gains, if at all, maintained in the long-term? Fifty one (51) third-year LMD university English language learners are divided into two groups: a FonF group (N=27), and a Control group (N=24).

Parallel structures were selected as the target form.

A Grammaticality Judgment Test (GJT) was used to measure accuracy of the target form over the short- and the long-term ; therefore, three similar but not identical tests were administered at three temporal times: a pre-test, an immediate post-test, and a delayed post-test.

The results of the present study showed that FonF instruction had a differential effect in language learning in both the short- and the long-term.

Recommendations for both research and pedagogy are discussed.

-