The role of Language Aptitude and Timing of Form-Focused Instruction in TBLT

Aptitude-Treatment Interaction research seeks to determine whether learners extract more benefit from a specific type of instruction in accordance with their Language Aptitude (LA). Previous research has compared the role of LA mostly in relation to the explicit and implicit nature of treatments (e.g. Sheen 2007, Yilmaz and Granena, 2016), while others have also considered the level of proficiency of learners (Li, 2013) and timing of instruction (Li et al., 2019). However, no research has looked at the timing of Form-Focused Instruction (FFI) and the level of proficiency with respect to the role of LA. In this quasi-experimental study, the moderating role of LA was assessed by taking into account the timing of FFI within a task cycle and the level of proficiency. Eight intact groups (n = 165) of French L2 university-level students (4 B1 and 4 B2-level groups) completed two tasks (a ranking task and a decision task) during their class period (1:30). For each level of proficiency, groups were assigned to four different conditions: 3 groups received explicit instruction (EI) on the French subjunctive either before, during or after each task, while the control group completed the tasks without any EI. Participants completed a pre-test, an immediate post-test, and a two-week delayed post-test consisting of an Elicited Imitation Test (EIT) and a Grammatically Judgement Test (GJT). LA was measured via the LLAMA aptitude test (Meara, 2005). Results from multiple regressions show that: 1) Language analytic ability (LAA), measured by LLAMA F, significantly predicted variance for the lower-level proficiency learners who received EI before or during the tasks; 2) Implicit learning, measured by LLAMA D, significantly predicted variance for the higher-level proficiency learners who received EI during the task; and 3) No significant interactions were observed for the control group (pure implicit learning condition).