This master’s thesis discusses an approach to language teaching and learning called focus on
form whose implementation in language classrooms is possible due to the use of various
procedures. Six of those have been selected and examined for their pedagogical potential: based
on a review of empirical research, we find that certain focus-on-form procedures such as input
flood and input enhancement do not generate learning when used on their own, therefore, a
combination of different procedures is sensible. In the empirical part, the amount of their
presence in current coursebooks of English and Spanish as foreign languages in Slovene
secondary education has been determined. The analysis has focused on the treatment of one of
the grammar topics fairly complicated for Slovene students: the past tense dichotomy,
connected to the expression of the aspect in the two foreign languages. Findings suggest that
Spanish coursebooks employ more focus-on-form activities than English coursebooks do.
Nevertheless, it is necessary to surpass certain deficiencies of coursebooks (for both English
and Spanish) such as the excessive use of structured output activities and minimal use of
comprehension-based ones; hence, more detailed and structured didactic units –one for each of
the languages– are proposed to meet the students’ needs.
|