The Study of Turntaking Processes through Focus on Form and Focus on Forms Instructions: Incidental Grammar Acquisition

The present study aimed at examining whether the turntaking processes in focus on form and focus on forms teaching contexts were similar or different. Turntaking refers to ‘how each of the interlocutors in an interaction contributes to the conversation’. Both lessons were designed to teach some words but they also provided opportunities for incidental acquisition by exposing them to the two target structures, namely, plural s and copula be. The FonF lesson was of planned while FonFs lesson employed presentpracticeproduct (PPP) methodology. Fortyfive beginner Iranian students were nonrandomly divided into three groups of fifteen, namely, FonF, FonFs and control group. They received eight repeated lessons during six weeks. Two tests for receptive knowledge of plurals, and one test for productive knowledge of copulabe were used to measure the acquisitions of target features in terms of the differences in interactions that takes place in the two instructional approaches and consequently opportunities for noticing of target structures. The study used a quasiexperimental design through pretests, immediate posttests and delayed posttests. Then the statistical analysis was run through oneway repeated measures ANOVAS. Conversation analysis (CA) was employed by utilizing seedhouse’s ‘form and accuracy’ and ‘meaning and fluency’ framework to investigate classroom interactions. The analysis revealed that the interaction in the two groups differed in organization of turntaking, occurrence of different kinds of repair, and the frequency and function of private speech. Overall, it was revealed that the interaction in the FonF lesson was ‘conversational’ while that in the FonFs lesson was ‘pedagogical’.