Critique of “Focusing on Language and Content with Adolescent English Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom” by Trahey, M., & Spada, N. (2020), The Canadian Modern Language Review, 76(3), 218-242.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/02tngh66Keywords:
Form-focused Instruction (FFI), Metalinguistic Knowledge, Adolescent English Language Learners (ELLs)Abstract
The major objective of the paper was to investigate the effectiveness of integrating form-focused instruction (FFI) within a high-school mainstream social studies course for the development of metalinguistic knowledge of adolescent English language learners (ELLs). The study was able to fill in the research gap on ELLs by measuring the ELLs’ accuracy in the target language structures in both written and oral forms rather than making the holistic ratings as measures of linguistic performance. However, since the study only involved one group of participants in the time-series design without the comparison group, several threats to the internal validity of the study existed which made it difficult to conclusively evaluate the effectiveness of the FFI on the participants.
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Trahey, M., & Spada, N. (2020). Focusing on language and content with adolescent English language learners in the mainstream classroom. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 76(3), 218-242. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr-2019-0009.
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