Opportunities to attend to language form in the adolescent near-beginner foreign language classroom

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the occurrence of incidental focus on form in an under-researched context, i.e. the intact foreign language classroom with near-beginner adolescent learners. Two classes of near-beginner learners of L2 French and of L2 Spanish participated in the study. All interactions involving the teacher and a proportion of the students were audio-recorded over three consecutive lessons in each class. During each lesson there were opportunities for students to use the target language in pair and group work. A total of 27 audio tapes were transcribed and all ‘language-related episodes’ (LREs) where students attended to some aspect of language form, were identified and coded. Results, showing an average of 49 LREs per lesson, demonstrate a relatively high occurrence of incidental attention to language form in comparison with other research. There was a high incidence of student initiated focus on form and, as in other studies, learners were most often focusing on lexical features of the target language in the LREs. Overall results show that incidental attention to form is possible in foreign language classrooms with learners of low proficiency when they interact and work in groups and pairs.

KEYWORDS:

• Language-related episodes
• interaction
• focus on form
• foreign language classroom
• adolescent learners

Acknowledgments

The first author would like to thank Juliet and Nicole for their generosity and openness in allowing her to observe in their classrooms, and those students who consented to participate in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rosemary Erlam

Rosemary Erlam is a senior lecturer in applied language studies and linguistics at the University of Auckland. She is also Academic Director of TPLT, which gives her opportunity to work with in-service teachers of languages other than English. Rosemary has a background in teaching French. Her research interests include language teacher education and instructed second language acquisition.

Malcom Pimentel-Hellier

Malcolm Pimentel-Hellier has recently completed an undergraduate degree in language teaching at the University of Auckland where he was employed, during 2015/2016, as a research assistant in applied language studies and linguistics. Malcolm is currently teaching in Japan on the JET programme.