An Experimental Study Of Focus-on-form And Focus-on-forms Instructions On English Grammar In Junior English Teaching

Focus-on-form instruction was proclaimed by Long in1990s, which is meant toprovide implicit focus on grammar during communicative language teaching. Theapproach is becoming an increasingly important in ESL instruction, and results ofrelevant researches have shown that focus-on-form instruction is more effective thanfocus-on-forms instruction in western countries. The thesis is attempted to examine theeffects of focus-on-form and focus-on-forms instruction in students’ learning of EFL onpast continues tense and past perfect tense in the classroom settings. The subjects are twoclasses of grade two students from Kai Cheng Junior Middle School of Ningxia province.The experiment is a standard quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test anddelayed post-test. The independent variable is focus-on-form and focus-on-formsinstruction. The dependent variable is the score of past continues tense and past perfecttense in the two tests. Eight-eight subjects were chose,45students adoptedfocus-on-forms instruction as control group and43students adopted focus-on-forminstruction as experimental group. According to analysis of their pre-test (mid-term exam) score of these two groups, there was no significant difference between them. After theteaching period, all the students received post-test, which contained the past continuousand past perfect tense. Two weeks later, all the students took part in delayed post-test.The data collected was analyzed by Sample t-test. Moreover, a follow-up questionnaireand interview were undertaken for further research so as to better illustrate the questionsposed in the thesis.Results of T-test on immediate post-test analysis show that there is no significantdifference (P>0.05) in past continuous tense mean score. But there is significantdifference (P <0.05) in past perfect tense mean score. Results of T-test in delayedpost-test analysis show that there is no significant difference in past continuous tense (P>0.05) and past perfect tense (P﹥0.05) mean score.Result of questionnaire shows that majority of the students both from two groupsclaim that focus-on-forms method is clear and easy for them to understand though thismethod may be a little dull and tiring. In comparison, focus-on-form overwhelmsfocus-on-forms in creating an interesting and lively learning atmosphere, which providesmore opportunities for the students to practice their oral English.Result of interview shows that nearly all the students interviewed reach anagreement—focus-on-forms instruction still has its advantages in Chinese circumstances.But focus-on-form instruction may be helpful to foster students’ ability of analysis,generalization, autonomous learning and communication.The present study also offers some implications for English teaching and learning:1)Focus-on-form instruction is helpful to cultivate and develop students’ autonomouslearning ability and spirit of inquiry. Also it can foster students’ abilities of analysis,generalization, and communication. But for the complicated and difficult learning points,it is rather more efficient by using focus-on-forms instruction.2) Focus-on-forminstruction should not be overlooked; instead it should be encouraged together withfocus-on-forms instruction according to specific situations.3) Both focus-on-form andfocus-on-forms instructions are effective and beneficial with their own advantages anddisadvantages on English grammar learning, and focus-on-forms is not the only approachin language learning and teaching.