Research On CSL Teachers’ Use Of Interventions To Draw Learners’ Attention To Form

Spada (1997) defines Form-Focused Instruction as "any pedagogical effort which is used to draw the learner’s attention to language form either implicitly or explicitly."The study of Form-Focused Instruction (hereafter referred to as FFI) started in 1970s. Even though the studies in this field have yielded fruitful and consensus results so far, there are still some problems unsolved:First, most of the observational studies we reviewed all looked at the specific type of FFI, Focus-on-form, from a microscopic perspective, and the other type of FFI, Focus-on-forms has been neglected; Second, China started late on FFI and most of the researchers were focused on the review of overseas progress of FFI, the verification and validation of FFI and the analysis of specific methods of FFI(mostly on corrective feedback); no studies we reviewed investigated the usage of FFI methods in second language classes from a macroscopic perspective and no studies we reviewed compared second language teachers’use of FFI interventions.The research procedure of this study consists of four parts:classroom observation, text transcription, data collection and coding, and data analysis. With the help of the Intervention-on-Form(s)-Observation Scheme designed and tested by Simard and Jean (2011) especially for the study of second language teachers’use of FFI, each FFI intervention observed during 20 hours of video and audio-recorded class time was coded according to its type and its related characteristics. Teaching suggestions were then given according to the CSL teaches’use of FFI interventions.Research findings of this study are as follows; (1) The most frequently used intervention type was intervention-on-form techniques, but more time was spent on form-oriented exercises, and textual grammar interventions were barely used; (2) in the subtypes of intervention-on-form techniques, targeted questioning, explanation, rule presentation and corrective feedback were among the types frequently used; (3) in the subtypes of form-oriented exercises, repetition, sentence completion, sentence construction and translation were frequently used. (4) the characteristics of the interventions on form(s) coded were:vocabulary was the language aspect that was most attended to and none of the interventions targeted punctuation; the language frequently used during FFI was L2; the in interactional pattered preferred in FFI was whole class intervention; (5) there were some differences on the usage of FFI interventions between experienced teachers and novice teachers.According to the research findings, several teaching suggestions were given:(1) CSL teachers should use recast while correcting students’pronunciation error, but using elicitation or clarification request while correcting student’s error related to vocabulary and syntactic structures. (2) Novice teachers should set explicit time for students to do the exercises at the beginning of the exercise, so that the class time can be used more efficiently; (3) CSL teachers should draw students’attention to punctuation in class more frequently; (4) CSL teachers should create more opportunities for one-on-one teacher-student communication during class time.