An Investigation into the Effects of Combining Meaning Focused and Form Focused Instruction on Korean EFL Students’ Engagement with Language and Learning

<p dir="ltr">EFL researchers often advocate a blend of form-focused instruction (FFI) and meaning-focused instruction (MFI) to encourage explicit language knowledge development and development of communicative fluency. The current research investigated and compared how three lesson frameworks, incorporating both form focused and meaning-focused stages, affected engagement with language (EWL), and explicit knowledge development. The three frameworks were: consciousness-raising plus (CR+), based on the outline provided by Svalberg and Askham (2020); a modified present-practice-production (MPPP), based on DeKeyser (1998; 2020); and a task based language lesson framework based on Willis and Willis (2007) (WWT). These lessons were implemented and recorded via synchronous video sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic with three intact Korean university English as a foreign language classes. The recordings were used along with stimulated recall interviews (SRIs) to determine EWL levels and combined with explicit knowledge tests to measure learning effects. The study yielded the following findings. All three classes demonstrated similar significant improvements in explicit knowledge of the target language feature, which was sustained through the 4-week delayed post-test. The classroom recordings and SRIs revealed that FFI in the form of affordances for autonomous language investigation that were provided at the beginning of the lesson led to a high to medium levels of EWL throughout the lesson, including in the communicative task. In contrast, when the lesson started with FFI in the form of a teacher-led explanation, learner EWL remained low to medium throughout the lesson, including in the communicative task. The high levels of EWL were also observed to demonstrate a number of other learning associated behaviours, such as noticing, language analysis and consideration, as well as social interaction. Overall, the CR+ followed by the WWT lesson fostered considerably higher levels of EWL and learning associated behaviours compared to the MPPP lesson, though the WWT lesson was not performed according to its outline.</p>