Exploring the implementation of FonF tasks from learners’ perspective: a study on young learners

This study reports on the investigation of young learners’ perceptions of FonF tasks regarding enjoyment, ease, performance, and persuasion. It was attempted to explore young learners’ attitudes toward FonF tasks in two elementary English classes. The two classes consisted of 13 and 17 female learners aged 12 to 15. In particular, the present study addressed the learners’ perceptions of two selected tasks of grammar interpretation and grammaring. For this purpose, questionnaires and an interview were used to elicit their perspectives on the tasks. Based on the analysis of their responses, it was revealed that the determinant features for their preferences fall into five categories: the use of context in teaching grammar, the use of contextual support for practicing the grammatical structure, task demands, the novelty of procedures, and the saliency of linguistic structure. Findings also indicated that in spite of the learners’ positive attitudes toward four tasks, variations existed in their perceptions regarding four sources of influence: the required mental processes to do a task, opportunities for group works, textual enhancement and the learning values of the task. © 2016, The Author(s).