Form focus and pedagogy

There is no definitive list of the most common or indeed useful DMs; therefore a decision had to be made about which ones to teach. As we have noted in the introduction to this thesis, DMs have not generally featured in ELT materials so do not feature as tried and trusted items at B2

level in the way that more ‗traditional‘ features of grammar, such as the tense system, might. The DMs chosen are given in table three and a rationale for their choice follows this.

For the purposes of this study, III was taken to mean a lesson framework which helped students to notice features of the input but not to practise them within the classroom, something

Tomlinson (in Bolitho et al 2003:252) suggests is a key feature of a language awareness approach. It was hoped to raise students‘ awareness of the role which context plays in shaping DM use and to develop what Carter (in Bolitho et al. 2003:252) has termed ‗text awareness‘, by using activities which encouraged learners to notice differences between spoken and written texts and between their L1 and the target DMs.

We have previously defined PPP somewhat in contrast to III in that it is a framework ‗aimed at developing automatic habits largely through classroom processes of modelling, repetition and controlled practice‘ (Thornbury (2007:38). In this study, the use of activities aimed specifically at practising the target language was taken as the defining difference between these two frameworks. Within the III classes, students discussed features of the texts chosen (namely the use of the DMs) and were given activities to help to sensitise them to the context and usage and to help them notice these features in texts, in the hope that this might lead to noticing in input outside the lessons and thus their subsequent acquisition. Within PPP classes, students were also given activities to help them to understand the DMs from the context but were then given pre-communicative, contextualised and communicative practice of the language items, in the belief that this may help students to automatise and thus be able to produce these DMs outside the classroom. In both classes students were taught explicitly about the form and function of DMs as can be seen in the sample lesson procedures that follow.

The target DMs are given in table three and table four gives an example of the two different frameworks. The aim and focus of each lesson can be found in appendix one and the lesson procedures, from lesson one, demonstrate the different types of instruction used. The contrast between the procedures essentially comes in the last stage of each lesson, which I have termed ‗noticing tasks‘ and ‗practice tasks‘ but the names of the stages have been changed so that each framework can be easily distinguished.

Table 3 Target discourse markers and their functions (pilot study)

Function Discourse markers Examples

Opening

conversations/topics

Right, So Right, shall we start? So, what do you think about the cuts?

Closing conversations and topic boundaries

Right, Anyway, Well Right /well, I think that‘s everything.

Anyway, I‘d better go, I‘ll see you next week. Monitoring shared

knowledge

You see, You know You see, since I‘ve hurt my back I can‘t walk very well. The weather in England is, you know, pretty awful. Response tokens Right A. I think we should go there

first. B. Right.

Reformulating I mean, Mind you I don‘t like English food. I mean, some of it is OK but most of it I don‘t like. The weather in England is terrible. Mind you, I guess it‘s OK sometimes.

Pausing Well A. What do you think of the

plan?

B. Well, let‘s see…I guess it‘s a good idea.

Sequencing In the end, First, Then, First, we started walking quickly…

Then, we started running… In the end, we managed to escape.

Shifting Well A. Do you live in Preston?

B. Well, near Preston. Resuming Anyway, As I was saying,

Where was I?

Erm, yeah, anyway, we started walking really fast Erm, yeah as I was saying, we started walking really fast Erm, where was I? We started walking fast and then started running.

Introducing examples Like I think being healthy is much more important so you need to have, like, green food.

Justifying ‗Cos I don‘t want to go cos it‘s too

Table 4 Sample lesson procedures: III and PPP (pilot and main study)

III PPP

Illustration

1. Students discuss in pairs/as a group the kind of things they like doing at the weekend.

2. Students are given a task – talk to partner and find out three things partner did last weekend – time limit of two /three minutes. 3. Class feedback.

4. Students listen to tape of two native speakers completing the same task.

5. Students listen and write down what they notice is different about the language in this conversation compared to theirs.

6. If needed, students listen again and note down any specific phrases they noticed were used in this conversation which they did not use.

7. Students are given tapescript with the DMs in the dialogue blanked out. They discuss what they think is missing from each space. They then listen and check.

8. Students are then asked to group the DMs according to their function as follows: a) Starting the conversation.

b) Showing you want to finish the conversation.

c) Showing you wish to slightly change what you have just said.

d) Showing you are listening. 9. Class discussion and agreement. Noticing tasks (Induction/Interaction) 10. Students are given a new version of the tapescript with DMs in wrong/unlikely places. Students discuss and ‗correct‘ the tapescript.

11. Students are asked to translate a section of the conversation into L1, and then back translate into English. They then discuss and analyse any differences between their translation and the original tapescript. 12. Class discussion

13. Students discuss (in pairs and as a class) whether the DMs featured are easy to translate into L1 or not.

Presentation

1. Students discuss in pairs/as a group the kind of things they like doing at the weekend. 2. Students are given a task – talk to partner and find out three things partner did last weekend – time limit of two /three minutes. 3. Class feedback.

4. Students listen to tape of two native speakers completing the same task.

5 Students listen and write down what they notice is different about the language in this conversation compared to theirs

6. (If needed) –Students listen again and note down any specific phrases they noticed were used in this conversation which they did not use.

7. Students are given tapescipt with the DMs in the dialogue blanked out. They discuss what they think is missing from each space. They then listen and check.

8. Students are then asked to group the DMs according to their function as follows: a) Starting the conversation.

b) Showing you want to finish the conversation.

c) Showing you wish to slightly change what you have just said.

d) Showing you are listening. 9. Class discussion and agreement. Practice tasks (Practice/Production) 10. Students are asked to write a mini conversation together using as many of the DMs featured as possible. Pairs read out their conversations to the group (pre-

communicative practice). Group correction and drilling of errors with target DMs. 11. Students asked to have their original conversation about plans for the weekend again with a different partner. This time they are given the DMs featured on cards and must try to use them as much as possible in the conversation (contextualised practice). 12. Feedback: students perform dialogues in front of the class and teacher corrects /gives feedback.