An Empirical Research Of Dictogloss Task In Promoting Focus On Form In A Foreign Language Learning Setting

The present study set out to find out how effective the dictogloss task might be in focusing Chinese students'attention on form, and whether English language proficiency would influence the number, type and outcome of their language-related episodes (LREs).The approach used to elicit focus on form was a combination of teacher intervention and students' output, which draws attention from both external and internal sources, respectively. There was altogether 44 second-semester freshmen participants, 24 lower-intermediate and 20 upper-intermediate.Four hypotheses were formed: 1.Dictogloss task is an effective task in generating adult learners focus on form, despite in the English as a foreign language setting. 2. Adult Chinese learners will primarily focus on morphosytactic-based form instead of lexical-based form. 3. As English proficiency increases, so will the number of LREs and the morphosytactic-based form. 4. As proficiency increases, so will the correctly solved LREs.All the recordings were transcribed and the data were submitted to independent sample t-test. Hypothesis One was confirmed; Chinese EFL learners produced no less LREs than those ESL learners in previous studies. Hypothesis Two was also confirmed, supporting the notion that teacher intervention may help attract learner attention to morphosyntactic or less salient forms. Hypothesis Three was only partly confirmed, because lower-intermediate learners produced more LREs than their upper-intermediate counterparts did for one of the passages. The already confirmed part is that as proficiency increases, so will the number of the morphosyntactic-based form. The Fourth hypothesis also achieved confirmation.The results of this study together with the previous studies of dictologss and focus on form instruction imply that focus on form can not be left on the sole hands of learners like in the naturalistic settings; teacher intervention may be a good way to direct learners to better focus on form, and especially morphosyntactic or less salient forms. However, since focus on form research has been little done in Chinese EFL setting, more studies need to be done before the implication can become application.