IMPACT OF FORM- OR MEANING-FOCUSED INSTRUCTION ON L2 LEXICAL ACQUISITION: A BEHAVIOURAL AND NEUROLOGICAL STUDY

ABSTRACT
A fundamental question in research on instructed second language (L2) acquisition concerns the impact of form- or meaning-focused instruction on L2 learning. While substantial research has addressed the impact of those types of instruction on the acquisition of grammar, far fewer studies have compared their effectiveness for vocabulary acquisition. In addition, those studies have often exclusively assessed student’s acquisition of word meaning using explicit tests, which may provide an inaccurate picture of the actual vocabulary learning gains (e.g., at the earliest stages of acquisition) and the effectiveness of a particular treatment.

Therefore, this project investigates the effects of three instructional treatments: focus on meaning, focus on form, and focus on forms, on lexical acquisition at three levels of word knowledge (form, meaning, and use) and measured by means of three types of tests. Tests will range from explicit (e.g., provide the L1 translation of a novel word), over tacit (i.e. reaction time measurement), to neurological measures (recording Event-related potentials, ERPs) in order to detect lexical gains at different levels of sensitivity and track partial knowledge gains.

The effectiveness of the instructional treatments on L2 lexical acquisition will be investigated in two experimental studies. Participants, L1 Dutch speaking 16 to 17 years old L2 learners of French (N=220), will be assigned to one of the three conditions: Focus-on-Forms, Focus-on-Form and Focus-on-Meaning. While study 1 will use a behavioural test battery to measure vocabulary gains (explicit and psycholinguistic tests), study 2 will add neurological data (e.g., the “N400”, a negative-going brainwave peaking typically at 400 ms post-stimulus, indicates semantic processing).