Past Event

Researching form-focused instruction: Current advances and future opportunities

Dr. Hossein Nassaji
University of Victoria

Ample theory and research in second language acquisition (SLA) has advocated the necessity of attention to linguistic forms in L2 learning and instruction. However, the question has still remained as to what particular role form-focused instruction plays in L2 acquisition and what factors mediate its effectiveness. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the major issues that researchers have been investigating and how these issues have evolved over time. I will show that despite major theoretical and empirical advances made in this area, a satisfactory answer to many of the questions has yet to be achieved. I will argue that researchers need to broaden both their theoretical and methodological perspectives in order to be able to address the full range of questions in this domain. How this can be accomplished will be discussed. I will conclude with what we have learned so far and what continues to challenge our understanding of the role of form-focused instruction in SLA.

About the Presenter

Dr. Hossein Nassaji is Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Victoria. His recent book is Interactional Feedback Dimension in Instructed Second Language Learning (2015, Bloomsbury Publishing); He is Co-Editor of Language Teaching Research and Editor of the Grammar Teaching Volume of The TESOL Encyclopaedia of English Language Teaching being published by Wiley in partnership with TESOL International. He is the winner of the Twenty-First Annual Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize of Modern Language Association of America (with Gordon Wells of the University of California, Santa Cruz) and the recipient of 2012 Faculty of Humanities Award for Research Excellence, University of Victoria.