Cultural Differences in Perceptions of Form-Focused Instruction: The Case of Advanced Polish and Italian Learners

Abstract

The last two decades have seen a revival of interest in teaching formal aspects of language, which, on the one hand, has been motivated by such theoretical positions as the Noticing Hypothesis (Schmidt, Appl Linguist 11:17–46, 1990), the Output Hypothesis (Swain, Principles and practice in applied linguistics: studies in honor of H. G. Widdowson. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 125–144, 1995), the modified version of the Interaction Hypothesis (Long, Handbook of research on second language acquisition. Academic Press, New York, pp 413–468, 1996) and Skill-Learning Theory (DeKeyser, Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 42–63, 1998), and, on the other, has been inspired by numerous research findings demonstrating that not only does formal instruction work, but it also contributes to the development of implicit knowledge and its effects are durable. As a consequence, the main issue tackled by researchers has been the verification of the effectiveness of different ways of introducing and practicing grammatical structures, identification of linguistic features that are the most suitable candidates for pedagogic intervention, as well as determination of its optimal timing, intensity and duration (cf. Ellis, TESOL Q 40:83–107, 2006; Nassaji and Fotos, Form-focused instruction and teacher education: studies in honor of Rod Ellis. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 7–15, 2007). Even though the results of such studies have provided useful insights into various aspects of form-focused instruction, it should be kept in mind that the value of specific pedagogic solutions is by no means universal since it depends on the perceptions of teachers and learners which are to a large extent culturally determined (e.g. Schultz, Mod Lang J 85:244–258, 2001). In accordance with this assumption, the chapter reports the findings of a research project which set out to compare the views held by advanced Polish and Italian learners of English on different aspects of form-focused instruction. The subjects of the study were 212 participants, 106 from each of the two countries, who filled out questionnaires and participated in interviews. The analysis of the data revealed important differences between the two groups, which indicates that caution should be exercised about embracing recommendations that have not been empirically verified in a specific local context.