Dictogloss and the production of the English third person '–s' by CLIL and mainstream EFL learners: A comparative study

Abstract

This study compares focus on form in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and mainstream English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts in the production of a specific morphological feature, the English 3 rd person singular present tense markers. Research conducted in CLIL contexts to date examining morphosyntactic features has yielded disparate results. Thus, little is known about how this methodology affects learners' attention to form while completing a dictogloss task (Wajnryb, 1990). In the study 116 adolescent learners (CLIL, n = 54; mainstream EFL, n= 62) in the Basque Autonomous Community completed a dictogloss collaboratively and individually. Results showed that CLIL learners noticed and produced more instances of the 3 rd person singulars than mainstream learners, but not in a significant manner, and that those working in pairs in the CLIL group obtained significantly better results.

Does Dictogloss Improve Non-English Major Students’ Motivation and Grammatical Competence?

“…Jibir Daura (2013) recommended that teachers try to use dictogloss in the classroom so that learners could benefit from cooperative activities. The reported findings, to some extent, were in line with the results of previous studies (Kidd, 1992;Harwood, 2008;Qin, 2008;Gopal, 2012;Abbasian &Minagar, 2012;AlSibai, 2017) advocating the applying dictogloss to direct learners' attention to grammatical form (Akbari, 2012;Khoii & Pourhassan, 2015;Lindstromberg et al, 2016) while engaged in meaningful tasks (Basterrechea &García Mayo, 2014) and to fuel learners' motivation in the class (Abbasian & Mohammadi, 2013;Dista, 2017). Students made a progress in producing grammatical structures of a language and expressing the literal meaning of utterances (Canale & Swain, 1980;Akbari, 2012).…”

Grammaticalité des formes verbales en production lors de l'apprentissage précoce de l'anglais langue étrangère : un enseignement intégré fait-il une différence à l'école primaire?

“…This difference is triggered by the progress rate for -s omission, which remains statistically positive for the non-CLIL group in year 2 (i.e., -s omission is higher at T3 than at T2), unlike in the CLIL group, who omit -s less at T3 than at T2. Descriptively, omission rates for -s are lower for the CLIL group than for the non-CLIL group at all data collection times, which may indicate that CLIL learners are more prone to supply the 3rd person singular present inflection in obligatory contexts (also Basterrechea and García Mayo, 2014) or that they resort to other verb forms in these contexts (e.g., the progressive form). The -s omission was also reported to be high with ESL children (Ionin and Wexler, 2002) and is, therefore, a defining trait of young learners' oral production in English L2 irrespective of their learning context.…”

“…Finally, Basterrechea and García Mayo (2014) explored the connection between L2 form noticing and production accuracy in CLIL vs. non-CLIL contexts, comparing the oral performance of 54 CLIL and 62 non-CLIL teenagers (aged 15-19) in a dictogloss task in EFL. The data showed that the CLIL learners noticed and produced more accurate instances of the 3rd person singular -s than the non-CLIL learners, yet this difference did not reach statistical significance.…”

Content and Language Integrated Learning in Teaching English as Second Language: A Systematic Review of Empirically Based Articles

“…The overall findings indicated that CLIL has positive impact in the teaching learning process. the results show that CLIL students obtained better result than non-CLIL students and students' content knowledge was considerably improved (Binterova & Sulistya, 2013;Vasques, 2014;Basterrechea & Garcia Mayo, 2014;Dourda, et al, 2014).…”

“…Besides, the teaching process in CLIL lessons increased students' motivation in lesson and it also showed that students were more active, and interested in the subject. The use of CLIL also improved students' ability to work in group (Basterrechea & Garcia Mayo, 2014;Dourda, et al, 2014).…”