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Abstract: Juliana Shak and Sheena Gardner have recently provided information about children’s attitudes towards “focus on form” tasks. They compare and interpret the data comprehensively, and draw to a conclusion that the use of FonF tasks is perceived as effective by children. After a comprehensive analysis and critical review on the assumption of the study, its literature basis, research design and implementation, reliability and validity of the data, and the interpretation of the data, the results of the study is considered valuable, which provide insights into how the attention of learners can be drawn through task design and task implementation and references for determining whether integrating focus-on-form instruction into an upper-primary classroom is feasible and effective.
Key words：focus-on-form; grammar; task; primary classroom; critique
Grammar teaching has been a controversial topic for many years, with disputable points such as the effectiveness of explicit explanation and the appropriateness of exercise (Swan, 2001) [1]. There was an anti-grammar movement in 1980s, where Krashen’s idea that“grammatical competence can develop in a fluency-oriented environment without conscious focus on language form” was promoted (Hedge, 2002:143) [2]. In recent years, however, as the ineffectiveness of not teaching grammar was shown in researches in SLA, “the need for formal instruction for learners to attain high levels of accuracy” has been demonstrated, and a consideration of the role of grammar in the L2 classroom has resurged (Nassaji and Fotos, 2004) [3]. The term “focus on form”, which involves the teacher’s attempts to draw the students’ attention to grammatical forms in the context of communication, was proposed by Long in 1991. On this issue, Juliana Shak and Sheena Gardner[4]have recently provided information about children’s attitudes, which was rarely explored, through a series of quasi-experiments carried out on 78 children in Brunei in their article Young Learner Perspectives on Four Focus-on-form Tasks.
1. A summary of the text
The article begins with an introduction of recent development of theories on the feasibility and effectiveness of focus-on-form instruction. The authors, Shak and Gardner, points out that the key tenet of FonF instruction stays the same, though its form has evolved and developed into variations. The need for FonF in the communicative approach is admitted and introduced as agreement of a number of researchers, supported by studies on this topic. The authors brief the positive effect of FonF on L2 learning for children which is reviewed by Ellis, and identify the gap that little is known about what aspects of FonF instruction actually appeal to young learners, and that it is not yet clear which FonF tasks can best generate interest in young learners.
In order to obtain related information, the study investigates Children’s attitudes towards four selected FonF tasks, consciousness-raising, dictogloss, grammar interpretation and grammaring, in Primary 5 English class in Brunei. Children are invited to evaluate and comment the tasks in aspects of enjoyment, ease, performance and motivation. Questionnaires and interviews are used in collecting data. Results of the questionnaires are analyzed by calculating means and standard deviations and shown in column charts and a table. The author compare and interpret the data comprehensively, and draw to a conclusion that the use of FonF tasks is perceived as effective by children. Implications for the implementation and design of FonF instruction at primary school level are also given.
2. The assumption, purpose and significance of the study
The authors assume that different types of instruction exert different effect on learners, and investigating children’s attitudes towards FonF tasks is one way to determine the compatibility of task-types with the learners’ interests and motivation. They believe learners’ attitudinal judgment can be taken as evidence for task features suitable for their age group.
The purpose of the study is to provide both insights into how the attention of learners can be drawn through task design and task implementation and references for determining whether integrating focus-on-form instruction into an upper-primary classroom is feasible and effective, by investigating young learners’ perspectives on Focus-on-form tasks.
While many other researches focus on the overall benefits of FonF based on the language outcome with advanced L2 or foreign language learners, or on the differences between form-focused and non form-focused instruction, this study change the angle and look at the young learners’ perspective of FonF tasks. Its originality lies in the experiment subjects, young learners, and the goal of the experiment, to attain information about young learners’ attitude towards FonF tasks. This is significant, because learners’ attitude and motivation are important factors in language learning and teaching (Cook, 2008[5]; Hedge, 2002 [2]). The study on learners’ attitude and motivation provides referential information about the application of the tasks.
3. The literature basis
The research question is based on recent development of theories on the feasibility and effectiveness of focus-on-form instruction. Recent studies suggest that focus-on-form instruction has a positive effect on the development of second language proficiency. The authors correctly summarize that most of the researches have focused on the overall benefits of FonF based on the language outcome with advanced L2 or foreign language learners, or on the differences between form-focused and non form-focused instruction. Noticing the small number of empirical studies that show FonF’s positive effect on children’s L2 learning and the little information about children’s perspectives on FonF tasks, the authors justifiably focus their attention on this subject.
An amount of literatures published in the past 10 years that promote the embedment of FonF instruction in communicative language teaching context are reviewed by the authors to demon strate the importance and effectiveness of the use of FonF tasks. Studies that show FonF’s positive effect on young L2 learners carried out by Harley, Day and Shapson are specially mentioned. Perceivably, the authors mean to demonstrate a need to find an appropriate instructional expedient to help learners attain linguistic accuracy in communicative language classrooms. These studies, however, do not directly and sufficiently support the authors’ assertion that “without attention to form, L2 children will continue to experience problems with basic structures.”
4. The research design and implementation
The participants in the study were 78 Bruneian Primary 5 students from three intact classes of three different schools. All the three classes were following the national English curriculum; the instructional approach and the language content of their lessons had been similar. This suggests the 78 students share the similar learning background with a national group. Participants at different English proficiency levels and ages were unevenly placed in the three groups, with the total numbers of students at the three levels and the four age groups in normal distributions. Such a group of experiment subjects, therefore, was to a large extent representative of some larger group and was contributive to the external validity in a certain group. However, the authors fail to specify which larger group is represented by the subjects. To put it in another way, the authors seem to treat the 78 Bruneian students as representatives of all children, which is questionable. The instructional treatment was conducted over four weeks. The three groups were introduced to a different task-type each week. The introduction of each task-type lasted for 2 days, with different task focus in each day.
The experiment took up one out of four hours of English each week, and for the remaining three hours, the children received their normal classroom instruction. Besides, the groups of subjects maintained their original placement as intact classes. The authors would have had changed these in order to eliminate effects from irrelative factors on the experiments; however, they sacrificed some control of the design measures because of real-world constraint. These experiments therefore, were quasi-experiments. They suggested the abidance by ethical standards.
5. Reliability and validity of the data
For collecting data, an attitude questionnaire and group interviews were properly used. Questions on the questionnaires were both multiple choices (circle a face to evaluate the task) and open questions (why do you make such a choice? And write things you like and dislike about the activities, write things you have learnt from the activities). The interviews were semi-structured, and key questions were about opinions and justifications on the enjoyment, preference, difficulty and pair/group work. These two technique are usually used together as they “both involve eliciting something from informants: usually factual information about themselves and their teaching situation, or attitudes/ opinions on some issue” (Wallance, 1998: 47)[6].
Apart from the selection of a representative group of participants, some techniques were used to ensure the validity and reliability of the study. To ensure the reliability, the authors obtain data from more than one source (from three different classes). All interviews were recorded and transcribed, so as to make the findings more credible and explicit. To ensure validity, it was decided to elicit learner preferences to four different FonF tasks in the questionnaire, to avoid the influence from factors such as learners’ desire to please. In the group interviews, participants were put in friendship groups, in order to encourage children to be more responsive and elicit more accurate accounts.
Key words：focus-on-form; grammar; task; primary classroom; critique
Grammar teaching has been a controversial topic for many years, with disputable points such as the effectiveness of explicit explanation and the appropriateness of exercise (Swan, 2001) [1]. There was an anti-grammar movement in 1980s, where Krashen’s idea that“grammatical competence can develop in a fluency-oriented environment without conscious focus on language form” was promoted (Hedge, 2002:143) [2]. In recent years, however, as the ineffectiveness of not teaching grammar was shown in researches in SLA, “the need for formal instruction for learners to attain high levels of accuracy” has been demonstrated, and a consideration of the role of grammar in the L2 classroom has resurged (Nassaji and Fotos, 2004) [3]. The term “focus on form”, which involves the teacher’s attempts to draw the students’ attention to grammatical forms in the context of communication, was proposed by Long in 1991. On this issue, Juliana Shak and Sheena Gardner[4]have recently provided information about children’s attitudes, which was rarely explored, through a series of quasi-experiments carried out on 78 children in Brunei in their article Young Learner Perspectives on Four Focus-on-form Tasks.
1. A summary of the text
The article begins with an introduction of recent development of theories on the feasibility and effectiveness of focus-on-form instruction. The authors, Shak and Gardner, points out that the key tenet of FonF instruction stays the same, though its form has evolved and developed into variations. The need for FonF in the communicative approach is admitted and introduced as agreement of a number of researchers, supported by studies on this topic. The authors brief the positive effect of FonF on L2 learning for children which is reviewed by Ellis, and identify the gap that little is known about what aspects of FonF instruction actually appeal to young learners, and that it is not yet clear which FonF tasks can best generate interest in young learners.
In order to obtain related information, the study investigates Children’s attitudes towards four selected FonF tasks, consciousness-raising, dictogloss, grammar interpretation and grammaring, in Primary 5 English class in Brunei. Children are invited to evaluate and comment the tasks in aspects of enjoyment, ease, performance and motivation. Questionnaires and interviews are used in collecting data. Results of the questionnaires are analyzed by calculating means and standard deviations and shown in column charts and a table. The author compare and interpret the data comprehensively, and draw to a conclusion that the use of FonF tasks is perceived as effective by children. Implications for the implementation and design of FonF instruction at primary school level are also given.
2. The assumption, purpose and significance of the study
The authors assume that different types of instruction exert different effect on learners, and investigating children’s attitudes towards FonF tasks is one way to determine the compatibility of task-types with the learners’ interests and motivation. They believe learners’ attitudinal judgment can be taken as evidence for task features suitable for their age group.
The purpose of the study is to provide both insights into how the attention of learners can be drawn through task design and task implementation and references for determining whether integrating focus-on-form instruction into an upper-primary classroom is feasible and effective, by investigating young learners’ perspectives on Focus-on-form tasks.
While many other researches focus on the overall benefits of FonF based on the language outcome with advanced L2 or foreign language learners, or on the differences between form-focused and non form-focused instruction, this study change the angle and look at the young learners’ perspective of FonF tasks. Its originality lies in the experiment subjects, young learners, and the goal of the experiment, to attain information about young learners’ attitude towards FonF tasks. This is significant, because learners’ attitude and motivation are important factors in language learning and teaching (Cook, 2008[5]; Hedge, 2002 [2]). The study on learners’ attitude and motivation provides referential information about the application of the tasks.
3. The literature basis
The research question is based on recent development of theories on the feasibility and effectiveness of focus-on-form instruction. Recent studies suggest that focus-on-form instruction has a positive effect on the development of second language proficiency. The authors correctly summarize that most of the researches have focused on the overall benefits of FonF based on the language outcome with advanced L2 or foreign language learners, or on the differences between form-focused and non form-focused instruction. Noticing the small number of empirical studies that show FonF’s positive effect on children’s L2 learning and the little information about children’s perspectives on FonF tasks, the authors justifiably focus their attention on this subject.
An amount of literatures published in the past 10 years that promote the embedment of FonF instruction in communicative language teaching context are reviewed by the authors to demon strate the importance and effectiveness of the use of FonF tasks. Studies that show FonF’s positive effect on young L2 learners carried out by Harley, Day and Shapson are specially mentioned. Perceivably, the authors mean to demonstrate a need to find an appropriate instructional expedient to help learners attain linguistic accuracy in communicative language classrooms. These studies, however, do not directly and sufficiently support the authors’ assertion that “without attention to form, L2 children will continue to experience problems with basic structures.”
4. The research design and implementation
The participants in the study were 78 Bruneian Primary 5 students from three intact classes of three different schools. All the three classes were following the national English curriculum; the instructional approach and the language content of their lessons had been similar. This suggests the 78 students share the similar learning background with a national group. Participants at different English proficiency levels and ages were unevenly placed in the three groups, with the total numbers of students at the three levels and the four age groups in normal distributions. Such a group of experiment subjects, therefore, was to a large extent representative of some larger group and was contributive to the external validity in a certain group. However, the authors fail to specify which larger group is represented by the subjects. To put it in another way, the authors seem to treat the 78 Bruneian students as representatives of all children, which is questionable. The instructional treatment was conducted over four weeks. The three groups were introduced to a different task-type each week. The introduction of each task-type lasted for 2 days, with different task focus in each day.
The experiment took up one out of four hours of English each week, and for the remaining three hours, the children received their normal classroom instruction. Besides, the groups of subjects maintained their original placement as intact classes. The authors would have had changed these in order to eliminate effects from irrelative factors on the experiments; however, they sacrificed some control of the design measures because of real-world constraint. These experiments therefore, were quasi-experiments. They suggested the abidance by ethical standards.
5. Reliability and validity of the data
For collecting data, an attitude questionnaire and group interviews were properly used. Questions on the questionnaires were both multiple choices (circle a face to evaluate the task) and open questions (why do you make such a choice? And write things you like and dislike about the activities, write things you have learnt from the activities). The interviews were semi-structured, and key questions were about opinions and justifications on the enjoyment, preference, difficulty and pair/group work. These two technique are usually used together as they “both involve eliciting something from informants: usually factual information about themselves and their teaching situation, or attitudes/ opinions on some issue” (Wallance, 1998: 47)[6].
Apart from the selection of a representative group of participants, some techniques were used to ensure the validity and reliability of the study. To ensure the reliability, the authors obtain data from more than one source (from three different classes). All interviews were recorded and transcribed, so as to make the findings more credible and explicit. To ensure validity, it was decided to elicit learner preferences to four different FonF tasks in the questionnaire, to avoid the influence from factors such as learners’ desire to please. In the group interviews, participants were put in friendship groups, in order to encourage children to be more responsive and elicit more accurate accounts.