Actualidades Investigativas en Educación ISSN electrónico: 1409-4703

OAI: https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/aie/oai
Form-focused instruction (FFI) and language features attended to during content-based instruction (CBI) lessons at a southeastern Mexican university
PDF (Español (España))
HTML (Español (España))

Keywords

instrucción basada en contenidos
métodos de enseñanza
enseñanza del inglés
content-based instruction
teaching methods
english teaching

How to Cite

Arias de la Cruz, A., Domínguez Barrera, G., & Morales Vázquez, E. (2019). Form-focused instruction (FFI) and language features attended to during content-based instruction (CBI) lessons at a southeastern Mexican university. Actualidades Investigativas En Educación, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.15517/aie.v19i1.34785

Abstract

One of the shortcomings commonly associated to Content-based Instruction is the scarce attention teachers give to the linguistic aspects of the target language. In Mexico there are 33 public universities offering Bachelors of Arts (BAs) in English language teaching in which content courses are taught; however, very little is known about how these courses are taught and whether teachers focus on linguistics aspects of the target language or not. This article shows the results of a study carried out aiming to determine if Form-Focused Instruction (FFI) was implemented in two Content Courses at a Southeastern Mexican University as well as the type of FFI implemented by teachers. Through the use of a qualitative method, based on a descriptive case study, two teachers teaching content subjects to two groups of students (n=55) in a Mexican undergraduate programme were observed. After fifteen hours of observation, lessons were analysed using the Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching (COLT) Scheme. The results showed that the participant teachers implemented only reactive FFI while no evidence of proactive FFI was found. The linguistic features attended to were mostly vocabulary, pronunciation while grammar features were barely covered. There is not a true integration of content and language in these two CB courses. CB teachers need to make use of proactive FFI to direct students’ attention to less salient features of the target language.
https://doi.org/10.15517/aie.v19i1.34785
PDF (Español (España))
HTML (Español (España))

References

Ahmadvand, Mohammad and Nejadansari, Dariush. (2014). Attention to meaning and form vs. attention to meaning alone: the effect of focus on form on vocabulary retention in an EFL context. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 98, 116-121.

Airey, John. (2012). “I don’t teach language” the linguistic attitudes of physics lectures in Sweden. AILA Review, 25, 64-79.

Arias, Andrés and Izquierdo, Jesús. (2015). Language attention in content-based instruction: the case of language instructors teaching content in a foreign language in Mexican higher education. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education, 3(2), 194-217.

Arnó-Macià, Elisabet and Mancho-Barés, Guzman. (2015). The role of content and language in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) at university: challenges and implications for ESP. English for Specific Purposes, 37, 63-73.

Asadi, Bita and Gholami, Javad. (2014). Incidental focus on form in an EFL talk-show class. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 98, 267–275.

Asociación Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones de Educación Superior (ANUIES). (2017). Catálogo de carreras de licenciatura y posgrado. Retrieved from http://www.anuies.mx/iinformacion-y-servicios/informacion-estadistica-de-educacion-superior/anuario-estadistico-de-educacion-superior

Baecher, Laura, Farnsworth, Tim and Ediger, Anne. (2014). The challenges of planning language objectives in content-based ESL instruction. Language Teaching Research, 18(1), 118-136.

Bataineh, Ruba Fahmi, Al-qeyam, Fatima Rasheed, and Smadi, Oqlah Mahmoud. (2017). Does form-focused instruction really make a difference? Potential effectiveness in Jordanian EFL learners ’ linguistic and pragmatic knowledge acquisition. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 2, 1-11.

Bozdoğan, Derya and Karlıdağ, Buket. (2013). Neglected productive skills in content-based classes. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 70, 1152–1162.

Brinton, Donna M., Snow, Marguerite Ann and Wesche, Marjorie. (2003). Content-based Second Language Instruction. United States of America: The university of Michigan press.

Burger, Sandra and Chrétien, Marie. (2001). The development of oral production in content-based second language courses at the University of Ottawa. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 58(1), 84-102.

Cammarata, Laurent and Tedick, Diane J. (2012). Balancing content and language in instruction: the experience of immersion teachers. Modern Language Journal, 96(2), 251-269.

Costa, Francesca. (2012). Focus on form in ICLHE lectures in Italy. AILA Review, 25, 30-47.

Dalton-Puffer, Christiane. (2011). Content-and-language integrated learning: from practice to principles? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 31, 182-204.

Day, Elaine M. and Shapson, Stan M. (2001). Integrating formal and functional approaches to language teaching in French immersion: an experimental study. Language Learning, 41(1), 47-80.

Ellis, Rod. (2001). Introduction: investigating form-focused Instruction. Language Learning, 51(1), 1-46.

Ellis, Rod, Basturkmen, Helen, and Loewen, Shawn. (2002). Doing focus-on-form. System, 30(4), 419-432.

Hoare, Philip, and Kong, Stella. (2008). Late immersion in Hong Kong: still stressed or making progress? In Tara Fortune and Diane Tedick (Eds.), Pathways to bilingualism and multilingualism: evolving perspectives on immersion education (pp. 242-263). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Kamiya, Nobuhiro. (2012). Proactive and reactive focus on form and gestures in EFL classrooms in Japan. System, 40(3), 386-397.

Kong, Stella and Hoare, Philip. (2011). Cognitive content engagement in content-based language teaching. Language Teaching Research, 15(3), 307-324.

Kong, Stella. (2009). Content-based instruction: what can we learn from content-trained teachers’ and language-trained teachers’ pedagogies? The Canadian Modern Language Review, 66(2), 233-267.

Kumar, Ranjit. (2011). Research methodology step by step guide for beginners. Sage.

Lightbown, Patsy M. (2007). Fair trade: two-way bilingual education. Estudios de Lingüística Inglesa Aplicada, (7), 9-34.

Lindseth, Martina. (2016). The effects of form-focused instruction on the acquisition of subject-verb inversion in German. Foreign Language Annals, 49(1), 10-22.

Loewen, Shawn. (2005). Incidental focus on form and second language learning. Cambridge University Press, 27(3), 361-386.

Lyster, Roy and Mori, Hirohide. (2006). Interactional feedback and instructional counterbalance. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28(2), 269-300.

Lyster, Roy and Ranta, Leila. (1997). Corrective feedback and learner uptake, negotiation of form in communicative language classroom. Cambridge University Press, 19(1), 37-66.

Lyster, Roy. (2007). Learning and teaching languages through content: a Counterbalanced approach. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Lyster, Roy. (2015). Using form-focused tasks to integrate language across the immersion curriculum. System, 54, 4-13.

Mackey, Alison and Gass, Susan M. (2005). Second language research: methodology and design. Lawrence Erlbaum Associated Publishers.

Marzban, Amir and Mokhberi, Mehraein. (2012). The effect of focus on form instruction on intermediate EFL learners ' grammar learning in task-based language teaching. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 46, 5340–5344.

Nakatsukasa, Kimi and Loewen, Shawn. (2015). A teacher’s first language use in form-focused episodes in Spanish as a foreign language classroom. Language Teaching Research, 19(2), 133-149.

Ranta, Leila and Lyster, Roy. (2007). A Cognitive approach to improving immersion students‘ oral language abilities: the awareness-practice-feedback sequence. In Robert DeKeyser (Ed.), Practice in a Second Language: Perspectives from Applied Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology (pp. 141-160). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rodgers, Daryl M. (2006). Developing content and form: encouraging evidence from Italian content-based instruction. The Modern Language Journal, 90(3), 373-386.

Rodgers, Daryl M. (2015). Incidental language learning in foreign language content courses. The Modern Language Journal, 99(1), 113-136.

Saito, Kazuya and Lyster, Roy. (2011). Effects of form-focused instruction and corrective feedback on L2 pronunciation development of /ɹ/ by Japanese learners of English. Language Learning, 62(2), 595-633.

Schleppegrell, Mary J. (2016). Plenary speech content-based language teaching with functional grammar in the elementary school. Language Teaching, 49(1), 116-128

Södergard, Margareta. (2008). Teacher strategies for second language production in immersion kindergarten in Finland. In Tara Fortune and Diane Tedick (Eds.), Pathways to Bilingualism and Multilingualism: Evolving Perspectives on Immersion Education (pp. 152-173). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Spada, Nina and Fröhlich, Maria. (1995). Communicative orientation of language teaching observation scheme. National Center for English Language Teaching and Research. Macquarie University.

Spada, Nina. (2011). Beyond form-focused instruction: reflections on past, present and future research. Cambridge University Press, 44(2), 225-236.

Spada, Nina, Jessop, Lorena, Tomita, Yasuyo, Suzuki, Wataru and Valeo, Antonella. (2014). Isolated and integrated form-focused instruction: effects on different types of L2 knowledge. Language Teaching Research, 18(4), 453-473.

Swain, Merrill. (1996). Integrating language and content in immersion classrooms: research perspectives. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 52(4), 529-548.

Tedick, Diane and Young, Amy I. (2014). Fifth grade two-way immersion students’ responses to form-focused instruction. Applied Linguistics, 37(6), 784–807.

Tomita, Yasuyo and Spada, Nina. (2013). Form-focused instruction and learner investment in L2 communication. Modern Language Journal, 97(3), 591-610.

Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco, México. (2010). Plan de estudios de la licenciatura en idiomas 2010. Tabasco, México: UJAT.

Xanthou, Maria. (2011). The impact of CLIL on L2 vocabulary development and content knowledge. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 10(4), 116-126.

Yin, Robert K. (2014). Case study research design and methods. United States of America. Sage.

Zyzik, Eve and Polio, Charlene. (2008). Incidental focus on form in university Spanish literature courses. The Modern Language Journal, 92(1), 53-70.

Comments

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Copyright (c) 2018 Actualidades Investigativas en Educación

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.