earticle

영어

This study, as a conceptual replication of Shintani (2015), examined the effectiveness of teaching vocabulary through focus on forms and focus on form instruction on the incidental acquisition of two grammatical features by primary school EFL learners. Two third-grade classes with a total of 43 students were randomly selected and assigned to two treatment conditions: either focus on forms condition or focus on form condition. Each group received four 40-minute lessons designed to teach 24 lexical items and expose the learners to the two target grammatical features: the plural morpheme ～s and the definite article the. Results showed a statistically significant within-subjects improvement in terms of the English plural ～s for both treatment conditions, whereas focus on form instruction was found to be slightly more effective, albeit statistically nonsignificant, than focus on forms instruction in the acquisition of the definite article the. Potential mediating factors leading to differential effects are discussed in addition to relevant experimental issues and directions for future research.