A Comparison between Experienced and Novice Teachers in Using Incidental Focus on Form Techniques in EFL Classrooms

Yassamin Pouriran,Jayakaran Mukundan

doi:10.7575/ijalel.v.1n.6p.288

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of an empirical study that explored whether EFL teachers’ use of incidental focus-on-form techniques was influenced by their level of experience. Also, it investigated the distribution of incidental focus on form types at intermediate level and they were coded based on Lyster and Ranta (1997) and Panova and Lyster (2002) models. Incidental focus on form occurs spontaneously, without prior intention during meaning-focused activities and targets a variety of linguistic items. Here specific forms are not intentionally focused on, but are attended to spontaneously by teachers and other learners within meaning-driven contexts. Six teachers (three experienced and three novice) participated in this study. The data was drawn from transcripts of oral corrective feedback moves of six intact classes which were audio and video-recorded totaling 9 hours. A descriptive design which employed qualitative and quantitative data collection procedure was adopted. The results revealed that experienced teachers used incidental focus on form techniques more frequently than novice teachers. This study supports the notion that integrative activities which can integrate a focus on form into L2 communicative activities can contribute to learning a foreign language in terms of both accuracy and fluency.

Highlights

As the focus of classroom instruction has shifted over the past few decades from an emphasis on language forms to functional language within communicative context, the question of error correction has become more and more important (Brown, 2004). Askew and Lodge (2000) state that the relationship between teaching and learning should be considered a dynamic process, rather than a one-way transmission of knowledge
The result (X2 = 145, df =6, p
As the table shows, experienced teachers were different from less-experienced teachers in terms of type and frequency of incidental focus on form types they used in their classes

Summary

Introduction

As the focus of classroom instruction has shifted over the past few decades from an emphasis on language forms to functional language within communicative context, the question of error correction has become more and more important (Brown, 2004). Askew and Lodge (2000) state that the relationship between teaching and learning should be considered a dynamic process, rather than a one-way transmission of knowledge. As the focus of classroom instruction has shifted over the past few decades from an emphasis on language forms to functional language within communicative context, the question of error correction has become more and more important (Brown, 2004). Most of the interaction that takes place during EFL classrooms is guided by teachers, and they have a significant role in how students learn and what happens in the classroom. It is important to improve teachers’ knowledge of their own actions, and teachers should be aware of the corrective feedback techniques they can apply in their classes. In form- focused instruction there are some attempts to draw learners' attention to linguistic form while meaning-focused instruction requires learners to attend to the context or what they want to communicate (Ellis, 2001). Focus on form enables learners to take time out from a focus on meaning and notice linguistic items in the input, thereby overcoming a potential obstacle of purely meaning- focused lessons in which linguistic forms may go unnoticed (Loewen, 2003)

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