The effect of focus on form in the written work of adult learners of Arabic
journal contribution
posted on 2005-01-01, 00:00authored byHakeem Kasem
One of the key debates within SLA research circles concerns grammar - whether and hov to include it in second language (L2) instruction. 'Noninterventionist' approaches to language leaching, which centre on focus on meaning (FonM) , have been found to be neither economical nor expedient in terms of use of learners' classtime (Long & Robinson, 1998). This paper is a study of the effects oj direct grammatical instruction within a communicative context (Focus on Form - FonF) on the accuracy rate of the use of noun-adjective agreement in the written work of adult learners of Arabic. Learning the systems oj noun/adjective agreement in Arabic presents problems for beginners since. unlike languages such as English. Arabic needs to be modified for gender, number. definiteness and case. Through teaching material and methods, first-year university English speaking students of Arabic were directly exposed to morpho-syntactic inflections relevant to noun-adjective agreement. In post-tests over an extended period. instructed students showed a higher accuracy rate of some forms than their uninstructed colleagues. suggesting focusing on form is beneficial to the Arabic learner and does not need to interrupt the communicative flow in the classroom (Ellis et al. 2001).
History
Journal
Languages and linguistics
Issue
15 & 16
Pagination
69 - 82
Publisher
Université Sidi Mohamed ben Abdellah
Location
Fās, al-Maghrib
ISSN
1114-0399
Language
eng
Notes
Journal title (English) Languages and linguistics ; Reproduced with the specific permission of the copyright owner.