A Study on the Perceptions of Secondary School Students regarding the Form-focused and Communication-focused English Instruction

Abstract

Form-focused instruction (FFI) and communication-focused instruction (CFI) are two different L2 or foreign language teaching approaches. In actual teaching practice, almost every EFL teacher has a preference for them so that these two instructional approaches dominate EFL classrooms to a great extent. This study, by using a self-designed questionnaire, attempts to examine student perceptions toward FFI and CFI. The subjects in this quantitative study were 300 ninth graders and 300 twelfth graders from two public urban schools. Findings from two-way MANOVA analysis revealed that: 1) Both ninth-grade and twelfth-grade students held highly positive perceptions toward CFI, but they were not very positive toward FFI. In contrast, ninth graders showed more positive perceptions toward FFI than twelfth graders. 2) Gender differences existed in student perceptions toward FFI. Male students were more positive toward FFI than female students. 3) Results showed that the two predictors FFI and CFI had certain correlations with the academic achievement of ninth-grade and twelfth-grade students. Based on the findings of this study, a few constructive conclusions are as follows: 1) EFL teachers are encouraged to apply the communicative approach in class to foster and develop secondary school students’ communication skills. 2) Teaching grammar to junior high and male students is likely to achieve effective results. 3) EFL teachers need to take gender differences into account when they design English curriculum. 4) Both FFI and CFI can help students achieve academic success at school.