Instruction and the Development of Questions in L2 Classrooms

TLDR

This quasi‑experimental study investigates how form‑focused instruction and corrective feedback influence the development of interrogative constructions in the oral performance of young francophone ESL learners. The study measured learners’ accuracy with interrogative structures before and after a 2‑week instructional treatment, administered immediate and delayed posttests, analyzed instructors’ language use relative to learners’ performance, and included a comparison group. Results demonstrate that form‑focused instruction and corrective feedback within communicative interaction positively affect second‑language development of interrogative structures in both the short and long term.

Abstract

This paper is a report on a quasi-experimental study designed to investigate contributions of form-focused instruction and corrective feedback to the development of interrogative constructions in the oral performance of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners. The subjects were young francophone learners of English (age 10–12) receiving intensive ESL instruction. Their accuracy and developmental progress in the use of interrogative structures was measured prior to a 2-week period of instructional treatment. Immediate and delayed posttests were administered after the instruction. The language produced by the instructors while teaching interrogative structures was examined in relation to the learners' oral performance. Similar analyses were carried out with a comparison group. The results support the hypothesis that form-focused instruction and corrective feedback provided within the context of communicative interaction can contribute positively to second language development in both the short and long term.