The importance of focus on form in communicative language teaching

Year 2015, , 1 - 12, 17.09.2015

Rod Ellis

https://doi.org/10.32601/ejal.460611

Cited By: 16

Abstract

Long (1991) distinguished two approaches to language teaching, which he called ‘focus-on-forms’ and
‘focus-on-form’. In this article I discuss ‘focus-on-form’ from both a theoretical perspective by outlining
the psycholinguistic rationale for this type of instruction and from a practical perspective by identifying
the strategies that students and teachers can use when doing focus-on-form. I conclude by emphasizing
the importance of including a focus-on-form in communicative language teaching in order to facilitate
incidental language learning and thus reject the commonly held view that teachers should not ‘interfere’
when students are performing a communicative task. I also suggest that ‘focus-on-forms’ and ‘focus-onform’
should be seen as complementary rather than oppositional approaches to teaching. 

Keywords

Form-focussed instruction, focus-on-forms, focus-on-form

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