Unit 10 Exposure and focus on form

■ What are exposure and focus on form?

Across the centuries people have studied how foreign languages are learnt. Many
experts now believe that one main way we learn a foreign language is by exposure
to it, i.e. by hearing and/or reading it all around us and without studying it. They say
we then pick it up automatically, i.e. learn it without realising. This, of course, is the
main way in which children learn their first language (the language they learn as a
baby).
Experts also say that to learn a foreign language, particularly as adults, exposure
to language is not enough. We also need to focus our attention on the form of the
foreign language, i.e. notice how it is pronounced and written, and how its grammar
and vocabulary are formed and used. They say that to learn language we also need to
use language to interact.

■ Key concepts
Have you learnt English more successfully from formal study or just by picking it up?
Research has identified three main ways in which we learn a foreign language. Firstly,
experts talk of us acquiring language, or language acquisition. This means the same
as picking up language. They say that to learn a foreign language successfully we need
lots of exposure to it and that we learn from being surrounded by language. We need
to hear and read language which is rich in variety, interesting to us and just difficult
enough for us, i.e. just beyond our level, but not too difficult. Acquisition then takes
place over a period of time without our realising that we are learning. We listen to
and read items of language many times before we begin to use them (silent period),
unconsciously working out (calculating/deducing) their meaning and form.
Secondly, experts believe that to learn language successfully we need to use it in
interaction with other people. We need to use language to express ourselves and
make our meanings clear to them, and to understand them. The person we are talking
to will let us know, directly or indirectly, if they have understood us or not. If they
have not understood, we need to try again, using other language (paraphrasing),
until we manage to communicate successfully. It is this process of struggling to make
meaning clear which helps learners experiment with language, forcing them to try out
structures, chunks and vocabulary they have already learnt, to see if they help them
get their message across.
Thirdly, research shows that foreign language learners also need to focus on form.
This means that they need to pay attention not just to the meaning of language
but also to its formal features, e.g. pronunciation, word order, affixes, spelling,
grammatical structures.
Nowadays, it is thought that, depending on our age and learning style, we learn
language best by picking it up, by interacting with others and by focusing on form.
This suggests that several approaches to language teaching which were commonly

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 Unit 10 Exposure and focus on form

used in the past may not be sufficiently helpful to learners, e.g. the Grammar-
Translation method which focused only on grammar and translating texts, the
Structural Approach which focused only on learning and practising structures,
or communicative approaches which just focused on using language fluently in
communication. But the research still continues, and we do not yet fully understand
how foreign languages are learnt.

■ Key concepts and the language teaching classroom

Read these tips and tick the ones which are most important for you.
● To acquire language, learners need to hear and read a wide variety of language at
the right level for them. They need exposure to language both inside and outside
the classroom. In the classroom they can listen to recordings of e.g. stories or
songs, or they can read e.g. magazine articles – maybe without any accompanying
comprehension or language tasks. Outside class, they can also read e.g. graded
readers and maybe use the internet to either read or listen to things that interest
them – without tasks to complete so that they can just take in the language.
● To acquire language it is not sufficient just to listen to or read language. It has to
be language at the right level. This means language that is just a little challenging
for learners because it’s a little beyond their current level. Teachers can choose
recordings and reading materials at the right level of difficulty.
● Learners need time to acquire language. They may need a silent period before they
can produce new language and we cannot expect them to learn things immediately.
Learning language is a slow process that necessarily involves making mistakes.
● Learners need to use language to interact. In the classroom this can be with
classmates or the teacher. This gives them the opportunity to experiment with
language and find out how successful their communication is. Pair and group work
give the opportunity for interaction, as do problem-solving activities and project
work. When they try to communicate, learners will often make mistakes. When
classmates don’t understand these, the learners will be forced to paraphrase what
they have said, which is a valuable learning process.
● Learners can benefit from opportunities to focus on forms of language. There are
many ways teachers can help learners notice forms (become aware of particular
language), e.g. by presenting new target language to learners, by asking them to
find certain grammatical patterns in listening or reading texts, by pointing out useful
language after they have completed a task, and also through correction.
● Some learners may like to learn and/or are used to learning in particular ways. This
means that teachers should consider learners’ age, learning experience and learning
styles when deciding how to teach. For example, focusing on form by asking
learners to highlight conjunctions in a text may be much more effective with older
learners than with younger learners. Correction may be the most suitable way to
focus on form with younger learners, but some older learners may dislike being
corrected in front of classmates.
See Units 12, 13 and 14 for the different characteristics and needs of learners, Unit 15 for approaches to
language teaching, and Unit 17 for ways of focusing on and practising language, and for examples of
communicative tasks.

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Module 1

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITY (See page 239 for answers)

Put these classroom activities into the correct column in the table according to which
way of learning they encourage most. Some may go into more than one column.

Acquisition Interaction Focus on form

1 Learners proofread and correct the first draft of their compositions.

2 A group of learners explains to the rest of the class how to make a paper plane.
3 A learner says ‘I go to see a great film yesterday’; the teacher says ‘past tense’.
4 Learners use the internet to find recipes for how to make their favourite dishes.
5 Learners explain to one another why a certain multiple-choice answer on a reading
text must be correct.
6 The learners see how many different prefixes they can find in a text.
7 The learners complete gapped sentences with the right tense of the verbs in
brackets.
8 The learners tell one another about a good book they have just read.
9 Learners listen to two songs which are their favourite English songs.
10 Learners look at a map of their town and discuss where to build a new sports centre.

REFLECTION
Think about these teachers’ comments. Which do you agree with and why?
1 I learnt Russian at school through grammar translation. Then after I left school I
went to live in Russia and just picked it up. The two ways of learning really helped
me speak Russian well.
2 It’s very difficult to bring interaction and acquisition into my classes – I have more
than 30 students in each class and very few resources.
3 The exams my students have to take focus on correct grammar, so that’s what we
focus on in class. I know I’m not teaching my students English, but teaching them
to pass an exam in English.

DISCOVERY ACTIVITIES

1 To read more about how languages are learnt, see Chapter 3, The Practice of
English Language Teaching (Fourth edition) by Jeremy Harmer, Longman 2007.
2 Watch your learners. Are there any who seem to prefer learning by acquisition,
interaction or focus on form? Write down your observations and put them in
your Teacher Portfolio.
3 Look at a unit from your coursebook. See what the focus of each activity is:
acquisition, interaction or focus on form? Does the overall unit focus suit your
learners’ needs?

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