In a two-year intervention study, explicit form-focused instruction concerning grammar rules and reproductive practice was removed from the curriculum. This presentation evaluates seven teachers’ accounts on the implementation of an implicit form-focused approach in mainstream secondary education when teaching English as a foreign language.
This presentation evaluates the implementation of an implicit form-focused approach in mainstream secondary education when teaching English as a foreign language. The participating teachers (N= 7) were interviewed and observed during a two-year study comparing an explicit and implicit form-focused approach. They were asked to fill in a questionnaire in the first and second year of implementation to gain insight in how they executed and experienced working with and without explicit form-focused instruction (FFI). This questionnaire was followed by an interview to determine how the teachers coped with specific classroom situations. The teachers were also observed while teaching the implicit classes. The observation instrument focused on feedback instances to determine how teachers responded to students’ errors in classroom language production. Additionally the teachers filled in a Likert-scale questionnaire to determine their views on and beliefs about grammar teaching. Evaluation of the data shows the teachers indicated clear differences between the implicit and explicit teaching approach. The implicit teaching approach lacked clear units of progression and took a while for teachers to adapt to. The questionnaire on views and beliefs of grammar teaching showed that the majority of the teachers held a positive view towards implicit teaching principles but that they highly valued explicit form-focused instruction that were related to improving accuracy. Implications for curriculum design and professional development will be discussed.
