Effects of Explicit Focus on Form on L2 Acquisition of English Passive Construction

Intensive research on instructed second language acquisition(ISLA)over the last two decades has,overall,pointed to the usefulness of Focus on Form—a type of pedagogical intervention that engages learnersmetaling uistic attention in an otherwise meaning-based environment—in fostering learners communicative accuracy. A finer-grained understandin g thereof has yet to be sought,especially vis-à-vis the type of focus on form and the nature of the target construction as potential mitigating variables.This small-scale study attempts to investig ate the effectiveness of exp licit Focus on Form(FonF)in the acquisition of the English passive construction.Two intact,lower-advanced level English-as-a-second-language(ESL)classes of a community English program in the U.S.partici pated in the study,with one serving as an experimental group and the other a control group.The study adopted apretest,posttest,and delayed posttest design and spanned five weeks,including two weeks of treatment wherein the experimental group received eight mini-sessions of C-R and metaling uistic explanation,while the control group continued with their regular instruction.Results indicated that the treatment significantly facilitated the learning of the passive construction.