The Comparative Effect of Explicit Focus on Form and Dictogloss Task on Learning English Tenses

Journal of English Language Studies

مقاله 6، دوره 1، شماره 1، آذر 2009، صفحه 101-114   

نویسندگان

Mojgan Rashtchi¹؛ Pooneh Khosroabadi²

¹Assistant Professor of Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch

²graduate TEFL student of Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch

چکیده

This study intended to compare the impact of two output-oriented focus-on-form types of instruction namely explicit focus on form (EFF) and dictogloss (DG) tasks on helping beginning EFL learners learn English tenses. The participants were 64 female EFL learners randomly assigned to two groups with each group receiving a different kind of instruction. Their knowledge of grammar was assessed through the placement test of the language school which showed that the two groups were homogeneous in terms of their language proficiency. Besides, a test of English tenses proved that the participants had little knowledge of tenses. Accordingly, the grammatical points were taught to both groups throughout the course. Teaching style in each group differed according to the type of technique used in each class. After the treatment period, the two groups took a posttest, the results of which showed that the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant. One highly probable pedagogical implication of the study is that both EFF and DG are effective pedagogical tools in helping beginning EFL learners learn target grammatical forms.

کلیدواژه‌ها

dictogloss task؛ explicit focus on form؛ English tenses