Stimulated Recall as a Trigger for Increasing Noticing and Language Awareness in the L2 Writing Classroom: A Case Study of Two Young Female Writers

Abstract

Appropriately timed Focus on Form can help in raising the learners' language awareness. In this paper we argue that the learner's own text composition progression can indicate when a learner is ready to notice a particular language form. Stimulated recall induced discussion was used to provoke explicit writer comments relating to noticing and language awareness. Two female Swedish 13-year-olds wrote descriptive texts in English using the computer key-stroke logging program, JEdit. This program registers each key-stroke and its time of occurrence. JEdit includes a replay facility. Half of the writing sessions were directly followed by a stimulated recall session in which the writers used the software to comment upon a text's composition progression. A teacher took part in the discussion and gave Focus on Form elaboration when required. Later, the students were invited back to revise their texts. In the analysis we have coupled the comments from the first writing occasion with the changes made. We have also analysed the number of words written and revisions undertaken in each text's composition progression. The results show that the stimulated recall sessions were awareness raising and that they induced the writers to revise more, as an influence of the discussion.