The Effect of Task-based Instruction and Focus on Forms Instruction on the Development of the Metaphorical Competence of Iranian Upper-Intermediate EFL students

The current study aimed to investigate the effects of task- based and focus-on-forms instruction on metaphorical competence. The initial participants of the present study were ۷۵ upper-intermediate EFL learners who were given an OPT the results of which were used to select ۶۰ learners. The ۶۰ learners were chosen and divided into three groups each consisting of ۲۰ students and given a pretest of metaphorical competence. Next, the first experimental group was exposed to focus-on-forms teaching of metaphors. The second group was taught the target metaphorical expressions through Task- based instruction. The control group was exposed to the conventional method of teaching. The findings of the statistical test of one-way ANOVA indicated that both task-based instruction and focus on forms significantly affected the metaphorical competence of EFL learners. However, no significant difference was found between the Task-based and Focus on Forms instructions in improving L۲ learners’ metaphorical competence. Based on the findings of the present study, it is suggested that metaphorical language be taught via task-based instruction and/or focus on forms as both of these methods were found effective for teaching metaphorical language.

Keywords:

Metaphorical language , Focus-on-forms , Tasks , Task-based Instruction