Practice vs. Focused tasks: The Effects of Focused Task (Task Utility) on Iranian EFL Learners’ Grammar Acquisition

Focused tasks are tasks aimed to predispose learners to process, receptively or productively, some particular linguistic feature, for example a grammatical structure. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of focused-task (task utility) on students grammar acquisition. To this purpose, two intact groups were chosen as a control group (N=15) and an experimental group (N=15) of the study. Some targeted structures (prepositions, present continuous tense, singular or plural forms etc.) were taught to the experimental group through ‘task utility’ approach while the same features were taught to the control group by traditional method, i.e., practice. The results of the pretest and posttest in data analysis through statistical procedure of Independent pair T-test indicated the outperformance of the experimental group on the post-test. The findings support the arguments regarding the importance of focused task-based instruction in grammar learning. The researchers suggested applying implicit grammar instruction to different skills and languages.

Keywords:

focused-task , task-based instruction , task utility approach , grammar acquisition