On the tension of form and meaning

Sang-Ki Lee, Second Language Studies

The presentation will be based on the results of my quasi-experimental study that attempted to incorporate grammatical elements into meaning-focused reading classes by attracting learner attention to form with minimal interruption to meaning comprehension. Two hundred and fifty-nine (259) Korean EFL students (grade 11) underwent four different treatments—involving typological input enhancement and topic familiarity conditions. The responses of the students were compared with respect to (1) their ability to identify and correct English passive errors (as measured by a form correction task) and (2) their degree of reading comprehension (as measured by a free recall task). The results revealed that typological input enhancement aided the learning of the target forms, while having unfavorable effects on meaning comprehension. Topic familiarity, by contrast, aided the students’ comprehension, but was ineffective in terms of their learning of form. I will discuss the findings in light of the theoretical relationship between form and meaning and the role of learner attention in form and meaning processing. In addition, the presentation will have pedagogical implications for meaning-oriented language lessons. The paper that reports on the results of this study has been accepted and will be published in Language Learning.