The importance of focus on form in communicative language teaching
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 perspecti...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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2015
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| Online Access: | http://ejal.eu/index.php/ejal/article/view/50 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/58878 |
| _version_ | 1848760365711622144 |
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| author | Ellis, Rod |
| author_facet | Ellis, Rod |
| author_sort | Ellis, Rod |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | 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-on-form’
should be seen as complementary rather than oppositional approaches to teaching. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T10:14:37Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-58878 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T10:14:37Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-588782018-02-13T01:32:09Z The importance of focus on form in communicative language teaching Ellis, Rod 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-on-form’ should be seen as complementary rather than oppositional approaches to teaching. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/58878 http://ejal.eu/index.php/ejal/article/view/50 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Ellis, Rod The importance of focus on form in communicative language teaching |
| title | The importance of focus on form in communicative language teaching |
| title_full | The importance of focus on form in communicative language teaching |
| title_fullStr | The importance of focus on form in communicative language teaching |
| title_full_unstemmed | The importance of focus on form in communicative language teaching |
| title_short | The importance of focus on form in communicative language teaching |
| title_sort | importance of focus on form in communicative language teaching |
| url | http://ejal.eu/index.php/ejal/article/view/50 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/58878 |