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Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study
The term “Focus on form” (FonF) was first proposed by Long in 1991. He separated“Focus on Form” from the traditional exclusive grammar-based approach —— “Focus onForms” (FonFs), a traditional teaching approach which provides discrete-pointgrammatical presentation and practice (Long, 1991). The main organizing principle ofFocus on Forms for language classroom is the accumulation of individual language items(e.g. plural endings and passives) (Gass & Selinker, 2008). Obviously grammaticalinstruction is essential in L2 teaching and learning, but language acquisition is not justlimited to grammatical forms, context and discourses are indispensable. It has beenindicated by teaching and learning experiences that Focus on Forms pedagogy ignores thesocial functions of language, which hinders the learners’ development of communicativecompetence. This traditional exclusive grammar teaching approach is considered toproduce grammarians rather than language users.As the interventionist position was rejected in 1970s, Focus on Meaning waspreferred by most scholars. Focus on Meaning emphasizes the importance of adequatecomprehensible input but ignores the explicit formal instruction, so the defects of thisteaching approach have continually emerged. Studies of the exclusive Focus on Meaningteaching, for example, the intensive ESL programs in Quebec (Spada & Lightbown, 1989)and New Brunswick (Lightbown, 1992), found that although the language fluency of thelearners in the programs differed significantly from that of their counterparts in moretraditional programs, there existed the lack of grammatical accuracy (Lightbown, 1991,1992; Lightbown & Spada,1990).
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1.2 Objectives of the Study
The present research, focusing on the study of the explicit FonF and implicit proactiveFonF, is aimed at comparing the efficiency of explicit proactive FonF and implicitproactive FonF by testing the short-term effects and long-term effects of the subjects’acquiring English subjunctive mood, and the research questions are listed as follows:(1) In terms of short-term effects, which method has better effects in subjunctivemood learning, Explicit Proactive FonF or Implicit Proactive FonF?(2) In terms of long-term effects, which teaching method has better effects insubjunctive mood learning, Explicit Proactive FonF or Implicit Proactive FonF?The present study is aimed at testifying the effects of explicit FonF and implicit FonFin learning subjunctive mood by Chinese university-level students in the EFL classroomsetting, and determining which approach, explicit proactive FonF or implicit proactiveFonF, will facilitate instant learning and produce better durable learning of the target form,i.e., English subjunctive mood, in Chinese university-level EFL learners. And the ultimateobjective of the present research is that the major findings are expected to help ChineseEFL teachers and students obtain deeper insight into English grammar instruction andacquisition theoretically and pedagogically.
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Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Focus on Form versus Focus on Meaning
Focus on form (FonF) is actually an improved L2 pedagogical approach, whichprovides learners grammatical instruction in meaning-based settings. The term focus onform (FonF) was first proposed by Michael Long (1991) who d本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。