Comparing Focus on Forms and Task-Based Language Teaching in the Acquisition of Russian as a Foreign Language
The present study explores the impact that task-supported language teaching (TSLT) and task- based language teaching (TBLT) have on the acquisition of case forms and verbs of motion in Russian and on learners’ written and oral production. From a methodological point of view, the study follows a pre-...
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| Formato: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2019 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | CBUC, CESCA |
| Repositorio: | TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/666176 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/10803/666176 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Ensenyament de llengües Enseñanza de lenguas Language teaching Rus Ruso Russian language Ciències Humanes i Socials 81 |
| Resumo: | The present study explores the impact that task-supported language teaching (TSLT) and task- based language teaching (TBLT) have on the acquisition of case forms and verbs of motion in Russian and on learners’ written and oral production. From a methodological point of view, the study follows a pre-test – immediate post-test – delayed post-test design. Data have been obtained from first and second year students of the University of Barcelona (n=54) with a low level of proficiency in Russian. Each learner was assigned to a task-supported (TS) or task-based (TB) group and received 14 hours of corresponding treatment. The TSLT treatment for the first year students focused on the use of prepositions and case forms, and the treatment for the second year students involved the Russian verbs of motion with and without prefixes. For the TBLT treatment, the acquisition of the same linguistic items was analysed. These items were present in the tasks designed for the experiment. Data were obtained by means of three grammar tests (fill in the blanks, multiple choice and grammaticality judgment tests), a written task which required learners to write a letter / an email to a friend and two oral tasks (room description and map task). Measures include the target-like use of prepositions, case forms and verbs of motion in the grammar tests and in oral and written production, the number of errors per words for general accuracy, the number of clauses per T-unit and the mean length of clause for syntactic complexity, Guiraud’s Index of lexical richness for lexical complexity, and speech rate for oral fluency. Statistical tests related to the use of prepositions and case forms show that both approaches provided positive results in the immediate post-test, however, neither task-supported nor task-based treatment led to a significant improvement in the long-term perspective. On the other hand, participants in both groups demonstrated a significant improvement in the target-like use of verbs of motion produced in their oral and written performance and used in their grammar tests. In written production, learners’ syntactic complexity measured by means of clauses per T- unit and lexical complexity significantly increased after the treatment, whereas phrasal complexity (mean length of clause) did not change over time. Written accuracy significantly improved in both groups immediately after the treatment. However, learners in the TB group maintained this improvement three months after the treatment, whereas the accuracy of learners in the TS group decreased to the level they had before the treatment. In oral production, learners in both groups significantly improved their general accuracy in the performance of the map task. Lexical complexity and fluency improved in both oral tasks. As for syntactic complexity, no changes were found in any of the tasks. The comparison of the effects that the two types of treatment have had on different aspects of learners’ production reveals that participants in the TS and the TB groups have not significantly differed on accuracy, syntactic complexity and fluency of their oral and written performance. Task-supported and task-based treatments also had a similar effect on accuracy in the use of Russian prepositions and case forms. However, learners in the TB group have showed significantly better results than learners in the TS group as far as lexical complexity and the target-like use of verbs of motion are concerned. |
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