Proactive vs. reactive focus on form: two timing alternatives for grammar attention within communicative teaching¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 5 claims (5 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 5 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article presents the proactive/reactive distinction (attributed to Doughty and Williams, 1998) as the organizing taxonomy for timing of focus on form within communicative language teaching. Proactive or preemptive FOF is preplanned instruction on forms chosen in advance, where "the teacher chooses a form in advance to present to students in order to help them complete a communicative task," with form choice driven by learners' communicative needs rather than an imposed syllabus. Reactive FOF is a responsive intervention reacting to learners' errors during communication, typically via corrective feedback. The study operationalizes both as treatments and compares their efficacy.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Both approaches require a communicative context; reactive FOF requires teachers to notice pervasive errors and have techniques for drawing learners' attention to them

Constraints¶

• Proactive form choice is not centered on a set of language structures imposed by the syllabus but on learners' communicative needs, individual learner differences, developmental sequences, and L1 influences

Target Learners¶

• adult EFL learners at beginner and upper-intermediate levels

Target Learning Objectives¶

• grammatical accuracy and internalization of target grammatical structures

Claims¶

• Proactive Fof Advantage Both Proficiency Levels [+M]
• Beginner EFL learners taught with proactive FOF scored significantly higher on a grammar posttest than learners taught with reactive FOF [+W]
• Upper-intermediate EFL learners taught with proactive FOF scored significantly higher on a grammar posttest than learners taught with reactive FOF [+W]
• Preselection of grammar points in proactive FOF reduced learners' repetition and fossilization of erroneous forms [+W]
• Reactive FOF is more time-consuming than proactive FOF, reducing opportunities to elaborate on preselected grammar points [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Focused vs. unfocused communicative task distinction in task-based language teaching

Examples¶

• Use planned, proactive grammar instruction for complex infrequent structures in low-exposure EFL settings
• Pre-teach target language forms deductively before journal entries incorporate them

Key Sources¶

• Naeimeh Bakshiri, Arshya Keyvanfar. (2011). Time Matters: Proactive vs. Reactive FOF. i-manager's Journal of English Language Teaching, Vol. 1 No. 2, April - June 2011. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1071093