Thirty-five years of ISLA on form-focused instruction: A methodological synthesis
Sok S, Kang EY, Han Z · 2018
grade Creviewindependentnot-applicable
Sample
88 (quasi-)experimental studies
Population
Second-language learners in form-focused instruction studies published in six applied-linguistics journals
Design
A methodological rather than substantive synthesis - it codes the research design, participants, setting, treatment and outcome measures of 88 studies rather than pooling their effects. It is the source of record for how much the field's measurement practice has and has not improved since Norris & Ortega.
Key findings
Since Norris & Ortega (2000) the domain has grown, added previously unexamined L1 groups, increased the number of studies of implicit instruction, made greater use of MULTIPLE measures of learning, and increased pretesting and DELAYED POST-TESTING. But a number of methodological weaknesses persist. The honest reading for a school is that the field's own methodologists say the evidence base improved and is still not good enough to carry the effect sizes it reports.
Genetic confound
Not applicable - a methodological coding study.
Replication notes
Not applicable.
Effects
| Outcome | Metric | Value | Measure | Timing | Vs | Horizon | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Use of delayed post-tests and multiple outcome measures in form-focused instruction research | methodological coding across 88 studies | increased since 2000, but methodological weaknesses persist | mixed | 1980-2015 corpus | none | not-applicable | domain-skill |
Cited by
- Comprehensible input or explicit grammar teaching — which builds a second language?mixedconf: mediumgc: low