This qualitative study provides preliminary insight into the role of the first language (L1) when pairs of intermediate-level college learners of French and Spanish are engaged in consciousnessraising, form-focused grammar tasks. Using conversation analysis of audiotaped interactions and stimulated recall sessions, we explored the ways students used the L1 and their second language (L2) to solve a grammar problem. Students who were allowed to use the L1 (Group 1) worked collaboratively in a balanced and coherent manner; students who were required to use the L2 (Group 2) exhibited fragmented interaction and little evidence of collaboration. Findings from the stimulated recall sessions suggested that reading, thinking, and talking appeared to be simultaneous and integrated processes for the students in Group 1, whereas these processes appeared to be sequential and competing for the students in Group 2. In addition to suggesting that using the L1 for these kinds of tasks reduces cognitive overload, these findings invite teachers to tackle the "problem" of the L1 in the foreign language classroom.RECENT ATTENTION TO THE ROLE OF THE first language (L1) in second language (L2) learning has challenged long-held anti-L1 attitudes that have dominated foreign language (FL) pedagogy for several decades. 1 In particular Cook (1999, 2001), basing his idea on the premise that the L1 and the L2 coexist collaboratively in the learner, set forward the notion that L2 learners should be viewed as multicompetent language users rather than as deficient L2 users when compared to native speakers. Although this notion goes against communicative language teaching approaches that focus on the primary importance of L2 input and L2 interaction in L2 learning, it offers applied linguists and FL teachers the op-

Framed under a cognitive approach to task-based L2 learning, this study used a pedagogical approach to investigate the effects of three vocabulary lessons (one traditional and two task-based) on acquisition of basic meanings, forms and morphological aspects of Spanish words. Quantitative analysis performed on the data suggests that the type of pedagogical approach had no impact on immediate retrieval (after treatment) of targeted word forms, but it had an impact on long-term retrieval (one week) of targeted forms. In particular, task-based lessons seemed to be more effective than the Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP) lesson. The analysis also suggests that a task-based lesson with an explicit focus-on-forms component was more effective than a task-based lesson that did not incorporate this component in promoting acquisition of word morphological aspects. The results also indicate that the explicit focus on forms component may be more effective when placed at the end of the lesson, when meaning has been acquired. Results are explained in terms of qualitative differences in amounts of focus on form and meaning, type of form-focused instruction provided, and opportunities for on-line targeted output retrieval. The findings of this study provide evidence for the value of a proactive (Doughty and Williams, 1998a) form-focused approach to Task-Based L2 vocabulary learning, especially structure-based production tasks (Ellis, 2003). Overall, they suggest an important role of pedagogical tasks in teaching L2 vocabulary.

This experimental study investigates the differential effects of three conditions (nonnegotiated premodified input, negotiation without “pushed output” [Swain, 1985], and negotiation plus pushed output) on L2 learners' vocabulary comprehension and acquisition (receptive and productive). Analyses of variance performed on the data indicated that: (a) negotiated interaction had a positive effect on the comprehension of L2 words; (b) only negotiated interaction that incorporated pushed output appeared to have promoted both receptive and productive acquisition of words as well as an increase in productive word retention; and (c) negotiated interaction plus output did not promote receptive acquisition more than negotiation without output, but it was more effective in promoting productive acquisition. The findings of this study provide empirical evidence for the important role of negotiation in facilitating the comprehension and acquisition of L2 vocabulary, which suggests that output plays a key role within the negotiation process for productive lexical acquisition.

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