Form-focused instruction reduced individual variation in performance, with standard deviations in both experimental groups dropping markedly more than in the control group¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r1 · q3
Currency · newest study 2011 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? On written tests of explicit knowledge, SD values in both experimental groups decreased by more than a half by delayed posttest, while the control group's SD diminished by only 25%. → Broszkiewicz 2011 q3 i? On the elicited imitation test, the FCT group's heterogeneity decreased more (9%) than the CPA group's (4.5%), which the article links to the implicit-knowledge focus of the tasks. → Broszkiewicz 2011

Evidence¶

Broszkiewicz 2011¶

Broszkiewicz, A. (2011). The effect of focused communication tasks on instructed acquisition of English past counterfactual conditionals. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 1(3), 335-363. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1136449

q3 · i? · causal · r1

Descriptive analysis of standard deviations across the three groups on the written tests and elicited imitation test. The article interprets the high scores with low SDs as increased homogeneity after instruction, while noting the control group's SD decrease could reflect the overall language education at the college.

"Form-focused instruction appeared to have a diminishing effect on the degree of individual variation in both experimental groups, as SD values decreased remarkably by more than a half on the delayed posttest, whereas the SD level in the CG diminished by 25% only"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Differentiated instruction reduced the experimental group's score standard deviation (6.30 to 4.73) while the control group's stayed nearly unchanged (6.44 to 6.47) — related
• Post-test scores were more consistent (lower standard deviation) in the teaching-aids groups than in the control groups on both measures — related
• The treatment did not level out inter-subject differences and made the treatment group more diverse in second conditional performance — reports the opposite