A Comparative Study Of FonF Vs. FonFs On Junior High School Students’ Vocabulary Acquisition

Scholars represented by Michael Long propose the Form Focused Instruction(FFI),which aims to attract students" attention to language elements that incidentally appear in a class whose primary focus is on meaning and communication.Ellis(2001)further classifies two types of FFI that are Focus on Form(FonF)and Focus on Forms(FonFs)based on grammar teaching.FonF instruction attracts learners" attention to form and regards language as a tool of communication on the basis of understanding meaning and communicative activities,while FonFs instruction directly and independently teaches language elements and guides learners to focus all their attention on language form.Since most studies of FonF and FonFs are conducted in grammar teaching and few are carried out in vocabulary teaching,this study intends to compare the effects of FonF and FonFs on students" vocabulary acquisition.Specifically the following research questions are addressed: 1)What are the different effects of FonF and FonFs on junior high school students" English vocabulary knowledge acquisition? 2)What are the different effects of FonF and FonFs on junior high school students" English vocabulary knowledge retention?The participants in this study were 100 students from two parallel classes of Grade8 of a junior high school in Hanzhong,Shaanxi Province.A vocabulary size test and English proficiency test were conducted at the first week to verify whether there were significant differences in the participants" vocabulary size and English proficiency.Then a five-week-teaching experiment was conducted.One class was receiving FonF instruction and the other was receiving FonFs instruction.The FonF class learned the words under task-based language teaching(TBLT)by focusing on understanding the meaning of the text which contains target words and by finishing the reading task.The FonFs class learned words under PPP teaching model by presenting words,finishing exercises and producing sentences.Both classes underwent immediate and delayed post-test on vocabulary knowledge.The research tools used in this study were Vocabulary Size Test and the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale,and the collected data was analyzed by using SPSS25.0 software.The results are as follows:1)FonFs is more effective than FonF on students" acquisition of vocabulary knowledge.2)FonFs still works better than FonF on students" retention of vocabulary knowledge.The findings are consistent with Laufer(2006)and Feng Teng(2018)"s studies,which show that FonFs outperforms FonF in vocabulary instruction,but contradict Saidi(2012)and Shintani(2013)"s findings,which show that FonF outperforms FonFs.This study"s findings can be explained as follows: first,students develop the habit of learning vocabulary outside the context;second,the PPP model of FonFs instruction strengthens vocabulary practice;and finally,learners" attention is easily distracted during FonF instruction.According to the requirements of curriculum standards for students"vocabulary learning,FonF instruction is more appropriate to better promote students"vocabulary learning in context and communicative activities,but the benefits of FonFs cannot be overlooked.