Focus on form: A critical review

In the paper

“Pre-teaching the target form may help learners to attend to it while communicating and may also facilitate learning (see, for example, studies by Lyster (2004) and Cintron- Valentin and Ellis (2015)).”

What the sources say

• Supported

  The introductory passage says form-focused instruction helps learners notice linguistic features during meaningful interaction. The Discussion reports that learners who received such instruction benefited during oral interaction, and the Conclusion reports improved performance and learning of grammatical-gender rules. Together, these support the hedged claim that teaching a target form can aid attention during communication and facilitate learning. (LLM, conf=0.86)

  cites Lyster (2004) source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Cintron-Valentin and Ellis (2015) source

In the paper

“Ellis, Loewen & Erlam (2006), for example, reported that repetition followed by metalinguistic feedback led to greater gains in tests designed to measure both implicit and explicit knowledge of the target structure (past tense -ed) than recasts.”

What the sources say

• Supported

  The Method identifies past tense -ed as the target and lists the tests used to assess the two feedback groups. The Conclusion describes the explicit feedback as repeating the error and then giving a metalinguistic clue; the Discussion reports an advantage over recasts on the oral imitation and grammaticality judgment tests. It specifies that this advantage reached statistical significance on the delayed posttests. (LLM, conf=0.91)

  cites Ellis, Loewen & Erlam (2006) source

In the paper

“They reported that both recasts and prompts are effective in promoting acquisition but the effect size for prompts (0.83) was appreciably larger than that for recasts (0.53).”

What the sources say

• Supported

  The Types of CF section reports significant effects for both recasts and prompts in L2 classrooms. Its between-group effect sizes are 0.53 for recasts and 0.83 for prompts, as claimed; the paper does not claim that this between-group difference is statistically significant. (LLM, conf=0.94)

  cites Lyster and Saito's (2010) source

In the paper

“As Ellis, Basturkmen & Loewen (2001) noted in their study of focus on form episodes in communicative ESL classes, there are occasions when teachers pre-empt a problem, for example, by reminding students they need to pay attention to a particular grammatical feature when they perform a task and learners also sometimes pre-empt as when they initiate questions about linguistic forms.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Ellis, Basturkmen & Loewen (2001) source

In the paper

“Studies by J. Williams (2001) and Loewen (2005) provide evidence that this happens with some frequency in task-based interactions and can lead to learning.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites J. Williams (2001) source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Loewen (2005) source

In the paper

“The instructional context affects the frequency with which different focus on form options occur and also the extent to which they result in uptake with repair (Sheen, 2004) [3].”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Sheen, 2004 source

In the paper

“To date, however, we have no understanding of whether some of these ways are more effective for learning than others.”

In the paper

“Given that the focus on form needs to occur in a communicative context, it requires the use of 'tasks' that focus learners' primary attention on meaning but also provide periodic attention to form by the teacher and/ or students when this is triggered by communicative need.”

In the paper

“Initially Long conceived of focus on form as providing learners with input (see the quotation from his 1988 article) but by this time focus on form clearly involves production as well as input.”

In the paper

“Thus, whereas PPP might initially be viewed as a FonFs approach as it is based on a structural syllabus and involves the explicit presentation and controlled practice of discrete linguistic features, it can be seen as including a focus on form as it is not limited to a focus on purely formal elements.”

In the paper

“For example, the final stage of presentation-practice-produce (PPP) involves such activities.”

In the paper

“So too is Long's insistence that the focus must be reactive and brief.”

In the paper

“This characterization of FonF focus on form clearly reflects Long's continuing work on the role of the negotiation of meaning in L2 acquisition and his advocacy of task-based language teaching (TBLT).”

In the paper

“Alsoand in this respect there is major shiftfocus on form need not be implicit.Long acknowledges that it can even include provision of an explicit grammar rule as long as this is provided in response to a problem that arises during a communicative exchange.”

In the paper

“The term has a long life and lives on but the construct it refers to has changed in quite major ways.”

In the paper

“But it would seem that 'focus on form' is no longer seen as an 'approach' (i.e.FonF) but as a set of procedures.”

In the paper

“Clearly, focus on form now involves much more than the negotiation of meaning.”

In the paper

“In other words, focus on form lies at the heart of Long's advocacy of task-based language teaching (TB LT) (see Long and Crookes, 1992).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Long and Crookes, 1992 source

In the paper

“Here Long views FonF and FonFs as 'programs' or 'approaches'.”

In the paper

“As we will see in the next section, as other researchers and teacher educators have seized on the importance of incorporating attention to form in a communicative curriculum, the scope of the term 'focus on form' has expanded considerably.”

In the paper

“Also the term 'focus on form' is somewhat misleading as the desired focus is not just on form but on form-meaning mapping”

In the paper

“Long first used the term in 1988 in a review of research of instructed interlanguage development.”

In the paper

“The term was first introduced by Long (1988;1991) to refer to an approach where learners' attention is attracted to linguistic forms as they engage in the performance of tasks.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Long (1988;1991)

In the paper

“For Long, then, the negotiation of meaning was the primary means for achieving a focus on form.”

In the paper

“The essential theoretical foundation remains intact -attention to linguistic form needs to occur in ways that are compatible with how an L2 is acquired by learners.”

In the paper

“offers an updated definition of the construct based on the view that the term is best used to refer to specific kinds of 'activities' or 'procedures' rather than to an 'approach'.”

In the paper

“The problem here is that explicit language teaching can also include activities designed to focus learners' attention on form in communicative activities.”

In the paper

“Nor does Long see focus on form as catering just to incidental learning; rather 'intentional learning is brought to the aid of incidental learning, thereby improving the likelihood that a new form-meaning association will be perceived or perceived more quickly' (p.317).”

In the paper

“Focus on formboth interactive and non-interactivecan vary in how obtrusive it is (i.e.how much it interferes with communication).”

In the paper

“Clearly an expanded definition of focus on form is needed.”

In the paper

“Clearly, in PPP the focus on form in the production activity must be planned.”

In the paper

“The activities in which focus on form occurs, then, can be either unfocused (i.e.designed to simply elicit general samples of the L2) leading to incidental attention to a variety of forms) or they can be focused leading to a predetermined and intensive focus on a specific form(s).”

In the paper

“This affords the learner an overt comparison between his erroneous utterance and the target form and an opportunity for the learner to carry out the kind of the mental comparison hypothesized to assist the restructuring of the L2 system”

In the paper

“Interactive focus on form, then, can be defined as the pre-emptive or responsive attention to form that occurs during an activity that is primarily meaning-focused and that addresses either a communicative or linguistic problem.”

In the paper

“Central to all these senses of focus on form is that learners' attention is attracted to formmeaning mapping while they are engaged in an activity where the primary focus is on meaning.”

In the paper

“For example, 'input flood' is viewed as minimally obtrusive, corrective recasts as more obtrusive while 'input processing' involving structured input (VanPatten, 1996) is very clearly obtrusive.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites VanPatten, 1996

In the paper

“For example, recasts (generally considered an implicit type of focus on form) may facilitate the acquisition of salient/non-redundant features but explicit correction may be needed for non-salient/ communicatively redundant features.”

In the paper

“There are doubts about L2 learners' ability to engage in simultaneous processing of meaning and form.”

In the paper

“In the classroom, opportunities will exist for the simultaneous processing of form and meaning, focusing on form in advance of a communicative activity (for example, by means of direct instruction), temporary shifts of attention from meaning to form, and immediately contingent focus on form.”

In the paper

“In focus on form activities attention is selectively focused on meaning but may also from time to time be voluntarily or involuntarily focused on specific linguistic forms that occur in the input or that the learner needs to express a particular meaning.”

In the paper

“The more obtrusive techniques, however, might be better classified as focus-on-forms techniques as arguably they direct rather than attract attention to form.”

In the paper

“This manipulation may also lead to enhanced attention to form when learners perform the task.”

In the paper

“LREs are clearly instances of focus on form and typically involve explicit attention to form.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Swain (1998)

In the paper

“In the case of the latter a focus-on-form activity can be incorporated into a synthetic approach such as PPP, which some commentators (e.g.Fotos, 1998;Littlewood, 2007) have argued is needed in contexts where the L2 is a foreign rather than a second language and where there is an expectancy that the language will be taught explicitly.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Fotos, 1998 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Littlewood, 2007 source

In the paper

“The cognitive comparison in this example is clearly a very conscious process but in interactive focus-on-form episodes may lead to 'detection' without any conscious awareness.”

In the paper

“Perhaps, though, focus on form and focus on forms activities should be seen as placed on a continuum depending on the extent to which they cater to explicit or implicit attention to form.”

In the paper

“However, Doughty & Williams clearly had interactive focus on form in mind.”

In the paper

“As I have argued elsewhere (Ellis 2015), focus on form is best understood not as an approach (i.e. as FonF) but as involving different kinds of instructional procedures.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Ellis 2015

In the paper

“Other researchers (e.g.Lyster 2001;Ellis, Basturkmen & Loewen 2001), however, have noted that the same kinds of interactional sequences can occur in a classroom where there is negotiation of form (i.e.negotiation occurs even though there is no communication problem).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Lyster 2001 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Ellis, Basturkmen & Loewen 2001 source

In the paper

“Interactive focus on form certainly allows for relatively implicit ways of focusing on form, which was initially seen as a defining feature of focus on form.”

In the paper

“Focus on form can also be viewed from a psycholinguistic perspective by considering 'the cognitive correlates of the components of focus on form' (Doughty, 2001: 211) as these relate to both language use and learning.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Doughty, 2001 source

In the paper

“In focus on forms activities attention is intended to be selectively focused on linguistic form.”

In the paper

“recasts vary in terms of how implicit and explicit they are and learners are more likely to benefit if the recasts are intensive and explicit as in Doughty and Varela's (1998) study of corrective recasts”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Doughty and Varela's (1998)

In the paper

“Treating focus on form as procedures also avoids another problem, namely whether it can only take place incidentally (as Long initially envisaged) or can be pre-planned.”

In the paper

“Irrespective of whether focus on form involves conscious noticing or subconscious attention it caters to incidental learning, that is, learning that takes place without intention while selective attention switches briefly from meaning to form.”

In the paper

“Non-interactive focus on form has also attracted considerable research.”

In the paper

“Features that are salient and communicatively functional in context (e.g.lexical items or grammatical features such as plural-s) may be acquired implicitly whereas features that are non-salient and communicatively redundant (e.g.3rd person-s) may only be acquired if they are explicitly noticed.”

In the paper

“These focus on form episodes are designed to avoid rather than repair a linguistic problem but they are clearly still problem-oriented.”

In the paper

“The problem here lies in trying to characterize FonF and FonFs as approaches.”

In the paper

“That is, focus on form entails various techniques designed to attract learners' attention to form while they are using the L2 as a tool for communicating.In contrast, focus on forms entails various devices (such as 'exercises') designed to direct learners' attention to specific forms that are to be studied and learned as objects.”

In the paper

“The learning of new forms can take place when learners simply attend to linguistic forms in the input but it can also take place when they express their meaning using an erroneous linguistic form and receive corrective feedback (a reactive type of focus on form).”

In the paper

“There is a fundamental difference between a synthetic approach involving the linear teaching of discrete linguistic features and an analytical approach where attention to form only emerges out of the efforts to comprehend and produce meaningful texts in the L2.”

In the paper

“In terms familiar to SLA researchers, the functioning of working memory enables 'intake' to be incorporated into the learner's interlanguage system either as implicit knowledge in procedural memory or as explicit knowledge in declarative memory.”

In the paper

“It is the interactive focuson-form, however, that attracted the greatest attention of SLA researchers such as Long, Doughty, Mackey and R. Ellis on the grounds that it is interaction that plays the central role in both first language acquisition and naturalistic L2 acquisition.”

In the paper

“They reported an overall positive effect in tests administered shortly after the learners had completed reading the enhanced texts but acknowledged that this was quite small and also that there were marked differences in the results of individual studies.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Lee & Huang's (2008) source

In the paper

“While there are a number of different models of working memory (see Wen, 2015), they all acknowledge that working memory is limited in capacity and functions as a site where information can be (1) temporarily stored, (2) rehearsed to prolong activation (3) and processed by establishing links with long-term procedural and declarative memories.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Wen, 2015

In the paper

“Simplistic notions that learners with larger working memories will benefit more from focus on form are giving way to more nuanced positions that distinguish how different aspects of working memory are involved in processing different types of focus-on-form interventions.”

In the paper

“In interactions involving the teacher there is evidence that pre-emptive focus on form is more effective than reactive focus on form especially if it is the learner who preempts (Nassaji, 2013).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Nassaji, 2013 source

In the paper

“In a task-based approach focus on form can be achieved interactively by means of the negotiation of meaning or form and non-interactively (see Figure 1).”

In the paper

“Both focus on form initiated by learners in learner-learner interaction and by teachers in whole-class interaction benefit acquisition (J.Williams, 2001;Loewen, 2005).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites J.Williams, 2001 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Loewen, 2005 source

In the paper

“On balance CF is more effective if it is explicit, presumably because it is more likely to guarantee a switch in selective attention to form.”

In the paper

“Less proficient learners may struggle to engage in dual processing -comprehending the meaning of the text and consciously attending to linguistic form -and are likely to prioritize meaning over form.”

In the paper

“There is now a substantial body of descriptive classroom-based research that has investigated the discoursal aspects of focus-on-form.”

In the paper

“Correcting learners' errors while they are communicating is a highly effective way of drawing their attention to form and there is clear evidence that CF facilitates acquisition.”

In the paper

“In contrast, if there is time for analysis of the input, deeper processing involving declarative memory may take place resulting in explicit knowledge.”

In the paper

“The extent to which learners participate in and benefit from focus on form depends on their L2 proficiency with higher proficiency learners focusing on form more and benefitting more from it than lower proficiency learners (J.Williams, 2001).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites J.Williams, 2001 source

In the paper

“But implicit forms of CF such as recasts have also been found to be effective and may even have a greater long-term effect.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Li's (2010)

In the paper

“CF is likely to be more intensive when it is in the hands of the teacher but it also occurs in learner-learner interactions and contributes to learning.”

In the paper

“She reported that those learners who participated more frequently in the corrective feedback were the ones who showed significant improvement in oral tests that elicited use of conditionals.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites McDonough (2004) source

In the paper

“The research on text-enhancement suggests that text-enhancement is effective in helping learners to notice the target feature but not always so (Lee & Huang, 2008).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Lee & Huang, 2008 source

In the paper

“She reported that over 60% of the feedback episodes led to learning.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Adams (2007)

In the paper

“We noted earlier that learners may have difficulty in attending simultaneously to both meaning and form.This can be explained by the limited capacity of working memory.”

In the paper

“Noticing affects intake but not everything that is taken into working memory passes into long term memory.”

In the paper

“It is becoming clear that the role of working memory in processing focus-on-form interventions is complex.”

In the paper

“The guided planning in Mochizuki & Ortega led to more accurate uses of the target structure (relative clauses) than did unguided planning but, importantly, it also resulted in similar levels of global complexity and fluency.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Mochizuki & Ortega

In the paper

“Shintani reported that FonF led to greater incidental learning, which was attributed to the fact that it created a greater functional need to attend to the target structures and afforded more opportunities for noticing them.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Shintani (2015) source

In the paper

“However, this was only true for one of the structures -the meaning-bearing grammatical morpheme (plural-s)and not for the nonmeaning bearing structure (copula be).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Shintani

In the paper

“Gass et al (1999) found an effect for repetition on the accurate use of a specific grammatical feature.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Gass et al (1999) source

In the paper

“Experimental studies of focus-on-form have shown that it facilitates L2 acquisition although this depends on a number of factors such as the salience of the focus on form and the learners' L2 proficiency.”

In the paper

“Focus on form is a crucial feature of task-based language teaching.”

In the paper

“Focus on form was first introduced as a pedagogic approach (FonF) that was seen as an alternative to a structured-based approach (i.e.FonFs).”

In the paper

“In such contexts the teachers' unfamiliarity with focus on form, the learners' concern with language as an object rather than as a tool for communicating, and an educational system that requires students to take traditional type tests to progress academically all constitute formidable obstacles in implementing an approach that prioritizes focus on form rather than focus on forms.”

In the paper

“In a survey of planning studies, Ellis (2009) found that both had a positive overall effect on fluency except if the task was performed in a testing (as opposed to teaching) context.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Ellis (2009) source

In the paper

“Sheen (2006) found that FonFs instruction led to greater learning than FonF but this study was seriously flawed.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Sheen (2006) source

In the paper

“The scope of pedagogic focus on form has expanded considerably over the years, however.”

In the paper

“Reactive focus-on-form (i.e.corrective feedback) has been shown to be especially facilitative although focus on form undertaken preemptively also aids learning as does non-interactive enhanced input.”

In the paper

“There is also an important discoursal dimension to interactive focus-on-form.”

In the paper

“These problems are now well documented (see, for example Carless, 2004) and cannot be easily overcome.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Carless, 2004 source

In the paper

“Subsequently, however, focus on form came to be viewed as a set of procedures for attracting attention to form that can figure in both approaches.”

In the paper

“There is ample evidence to support theoretical hypotheses such as the Noticing Hypothesis and also to show that focus on form results in learning (see previous sections).”

In the paper

“Pre-task planning and task-repetition have been shown to influence how learners orientate to the performance of a communicative task and impact on the complexity of the language involved.”

In the paper

“Descriptive research has identified a number or pre-emptive and reactive strategies that can be used to address form and how these strategies impact on learner production (for example, uptake with repair) and learning.”

In the paper

“These studies only go some way to addressing Sheen's (2006) call for comparative studies of FonF and FonFs and they certainly do not allow any clear conclusions to be reached.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Sheen's (2006) source

In the paper

“Such procedures belong naturally to task-based teaching but they can also be found in more traditional approaches providing there is some opportunity for free production in the L2.”

In the paper

“Some studies reported that pre-task planning aided complexity but not accuracy and viceversa lending support to Skehan's (2009) Trade-off Hypothesis.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Skehan's (2009) source

In the paper

“Sheppard (2006) tried providing learners with input and feedback between performances and found that both led to improvements in complexity, accuracy and fluency in the repeat performance and also in complexity (but not in accuracy or fluency) in the performance of a new task.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Sheppard (2006)

In the paper

“Central to all kinds of focus on form instruction, however, is some kind of meaningfocused task that provides the context for the focus on form.”

In the paper

“There is also evidence that a task-based approach that incorporates focus on form can be successfully implemented and is effective (e.g.Prabhu, 1987;chapters in Van den Branden, 2006).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Prabhu, 1987
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Van den Branden, 2006

In the paper

“They reported that a general focus on grammar had a negative impact on complexity and fluency without enhancing accuracy”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Pang & Skehan

In the paper

“Bygate (1996;2001), for example reported that fluency and complexity increased in the repeated task but not accuracy.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Bygate (1996;2001)

In the paper

“However, the results of task-repetition studies have produced somewhat mixed results along with evidence of trade-off effects in the repeated task.”

In the paper

“Lynch & McLean (2000) found that repetition led to increased accuracy in low proficiency learners but to more complex language in higher proficiency learners.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Lynch & McLean (2000)

In the paper

“Many of the objections are spurious resting on the misconception that it constitutes a uniform approach consisting solely of task-induced interaction and on the failure to acknowledge the substantial empirical evidence that lends support to it.”

In the paper

“Sheen admitted that the FonF instruction in his study was not properly implemented as the teacher failed to correct the learners' errors consistently while they were performing the communicative tasks (i.e. in other words there was very little focus on form).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Sheen

In the paper

“There is well-defined psycholinguistic dimension to focus on form.”

In the paper

“The limited capacity of WM constrains what learners can attend to while communicating and thus influences what they can focus on and learn.”

In the paper

“Also the tests in his study all involved controlled production of the target features and so favoured the FonFs group”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Sheen

In the paper

“Calls for comparative studies of FonF and FonFs have been answered but the research to date does not allow a clear answer as to their relative effectiveness.”