Focus on form

Focus on form-a myth in the making? By Ron Sheen (2003)

New Words
-Some parents equate education with exam success.
-Exam results are not the only yardstick of a school’s performance.
-Researchers are trying to correlate the two sets of figures.

Main points
‘focus on form’ by Long (1988)
-the idea of that comprehensible input is best experienced through classroom interaction.
-All classroom activity needs to be based on communicative task.
-task structure
-no grammar syllabus
-by means of problem-solving tasks
-perceived as being compatible with currently-accepted theories of SLA
-implicit (inductive) teaching strategy such as the direct method, the natural method, audiolingualism, strong CLT and various aspects of focus on form strategies

‘focus on formS’
-This is equated with the traditional teaching of discrete points of grammar in separate lessons.
-Communicative activity is the underlying propriety of the classroom.
-by problem-solving activities
Step1: providing understanding of grammar
Step2: written and oral exercises
Step3: providing frequent opportunities for communicative use of the grammar
-perceived as being incompatible with these
-explicit (deductive teaching strategy) such as grammar translation, cognitive code-learning and focus on forms as in a skills-learning approach

Conclusion
A ‘focus on formS’ approach is more effective than a ‘focus on form’ approach.