The Role of Class Participation Structure in the Effectiveness of Incidental Form-focused Instruction

A significant issue in L2 context is the role of class participation structure in the occurrence of incidental form-focused instruction (FFI) for teaching grammar (Lehrer & Palincsar, 2004; Nassaji, 2010 & 2013). This study aimed at investigating the occurrence of FFI in different teacher-student classroom participation structures and its efficacy in the students' learning of the past tense of regular/irregular verbs during dictogloss tasks. To this end, 32 pre-intermediate students from a total of 70 participants ranging in age from 15 to 20 were recruited and subdivided into three groups (i.e., whole class, small group, and individual). Dictogloss tasks were used as the classroom activity. The interactions between teachers and learners lasting for two and a half months were observed, audio-recorded, and coded. Finally, an individualized posttest was employed one week after each classroom observation. The focus on form episode (FFE) was utilized as the unit of analysis. The results indicated that EFE occurrences were not equal across classroom participation structures and that the majority of FFEs took place in individual interactions, which were predominantly teacher-initiated. The group-independence Chi-square showed a significant relationship between the type of participation structure and the occurrence of FFEs. Further analysis indicated that although the majority of FFEs took place in individual interactions, the small-group participation structure benefitted the most and the reactive FFEs and preemptive FFEs were found mostly effective in the small-group and whole class participation structures, respectively.