The Effect of Planned Preemptive vs. Reactive Focus on Form on Iranian English Learners' Written Accuracy: The Case of Third Person Singular Marker -S

Many studies (e.g. [21][2][26][24][1][29],etc.) have reported on the effectiveness of form-focused instruction (FFI) on increasing learners' attention to form and thus promoting their accuracy. However, there is disagreement on when the best time is to focus on form, i.e. before or after an error is committed.In this vein, adopting a pretest-posttest experimental design, the present study investigated the effectiveness of planned preemptive and reactive focus on form (FonF) on the accuracy in using third person singular marker -s of beginner Iranian male learners' written production. A total of 32 English learners participated in the present study. Story-telling tasks were utilized as the instructional and testing materials. The learners' writing samples were collected and rated through calculating an accuracy ratio. The scores were submitted to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 22.00, to be analyzed. The results indicated that both types of instruction, were effective in drawing the learners' attention to the linguistic form in focus. The results of the delayed posttest, however, were in favor of the planned preemptive FonF though not significantly.The findings of the present study have implications for teachers who use FonF instruction in their classrooms. It also highlights the role of the teacher, the time she/he draws the learners' attention to a linguistic item (i.e. whether prior to the error occurrence or after that) and interaction in improving EFL learners' performance

کلیدواژه ها:

form-focused instruction ، focus on form ، planned preemptive focus on form ، reactive focus on form ، written production