FORM-FOCUSED INSTRUCTION: ISOLATED OR INTEGRATED?

Abstract

Research has shown that attracting foreign/second language (L2) learners’ attention to form in communicative-based classrooms will help them improve their accuracy. Form-Focused Instruction (FFI)- teaching the form of the language while the main focus of the instruction is still the meaning- seems to be the way to insert the form instruction into Communicative language teaching. This study investigates whether the L2 learners of English and English language teachers prefer the isolated or integrated FFI that are the two ways of attracting the learner’s attention to the form of the language in meaning-based activities. Language teaching has shifted from grammar-based instruction represented in grammar-translation method to meaning-based instruction represented in the Communicative Language Teaching, and then to the most recent phase where form and meaning are taught at the same time represented in FFI. The purpose of this work is to find out how the students want to learn the English grammar and then to match their preferences with those of their teachers. The results showed that both groups significantly preferred the integrated FFI over the isolated one.