Effect of Focus on Forms instruction on receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of English for Science and Technology students

Abstract

        The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of Focus on Forms instruction (FonFs) on productive and receptive vocabulary knowledge of participants with high and low elementary English proficiency, and to measure the retention rate of both types of knowledge. T he subjects of this study were purposively selected. consisting of 39 third and fourth year students taking a course entitled English for Agriculture in the first semester of the academic year 2013 at Prince of Son gkla University. Data were collected using remedial teaching materials and immediate and retention tests. Results of the immediate test showed a significant difference between the scores of the two groups (.00 level) with the high elementary group performing better in both tests than their counterparts. It also showed an insignificant decrease in the retention rate of the high elementary group while that of the low elementary group decreased significantly (.00 level). Noun and verbs were the two parts of speech that the two groups of subjects learned better. Prepositions were found problematic for the high elementary group whereas adverbs were problematic for the low elementary group. It is recommended that more prepositions and adverbs should be taught to learners with similar characteristics and that productive vocabulary knowledge should also be the focus of instruction. For future research, a pre-test is required in order to be used as a reference for the post-test gains. Also, the number of words belong to each part of speech should be similar. Finally, the comparison between Focus on Form (FonF) and Focus on Forms (FonFs) should be carried out.