Focus-on-form and development in L2 learning

This chapter presents a quasi-experimental classroom-based study of the development of Italian as a second language in primary school children. It aims to demonstrate, first, the beneficial effects, in terms of rate of acquisition, of modest amounts of form-focused communicative activities provided these are based on the current developmental stage of the students. This can be defined in terms of Processability Theory (PT). Second, it shows positive effects for developmentally moderated focus-on-form in pushing acquisition further. The experiment follows a pretest-treatment-delayed posttest design in experimental and control groups. The results are consistent with the claim that form-oriented instruction promotes grammatical development in learners and, in particular, with the assumption that focused feedback which is developmentally appropriate is even more beneficial for the learners. Processability turns out to be the key element for both instruction and feedback.