Teaching Grammar through FormS Focused and Form Focused Instruction: The Case of Teaching Conditional Sentences to Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

Abstract

The current study aimed at examining the effectiveness of Focus-on- Form (FonF) and Focus-on-FormS (FonFS) techniques of teaching conditional sentences. For this purpose, 90 female students from Kaspian institute in Shiraz were selected. An oxford placement test (OPT) was run to homogenize participants in terms of their English proficiency. Then, a pretest was administered to determine the learners’ level of knowledge with regard to the target structures. Participants were assigned to three groups; two experimental groups (FonF group and FonFS group), and a control group. Then, conditional sentences were taught to group one through FonF instruction whereas group two received FonFS instruction on conditional sentences. Control group received a placebo task. After the treatment, a posttest was administered to measure the effectiveness of the instruction employed for each group. The results revealed that using FonFS technique was significantly more effective than using FonF technique in teaching and subsequent learning of conditionals.