Effectiveness of Isolated vs. Integrated Form-Focused Instruction in Iranian EFL Classrooms

Abstract

The present study investigated the effectiveness of integrated form-focused instruction (FFI) vs. isolated FFI on certain target structures, namely passives and condition type two. Three experienced female teachers taught 60 EFL learners in two experimental groups receiving isolated and integrated FFI treatment packages and in one control group for 12 sessions. The treatment in the integrated group included the use of videos, games, free discussions, essay writing, and readings with follow-up questions. After homogenizing the participants through a proficiency test, all of them were briefed on the concept of integrated and isolated FFIs and experienced this type of instruction through some concrete tasks on one grammatical structure. Similarly, the teachers were briefed on these two types of FFIs and practiced micro-teaching of one grammatical structure. Parallel pre- and post-tests in the form of recognition and production types were administered to all three groups in order to measure the effectiveness of the two treatments. The findings manifested the learners in both treatment groups outperformed their counterparts in the control group. Moreover, there was a statistically significant difference between the two experimental groups, and integrated group learners achieved the highest scores in both production and recognition tests. This study advocates more incorporation of integrated FFI and supports the notion that it could lead to a higher rate of meaning-oriented learner-generated output along with effective internalization of grammatical structures in EFL classes

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