The Role of Dictogloss on Both Listening and Grammar

Over the last two decades, research has demonstrated that attention through focus-on-form instructions plays a key role in L2 acquisition. One special type of focus-on-form instructions, dictogloss, involves understanding the text as well as learning the target language feature. Most of the studies, however, have exclusively focused on the effects of focus-on-form instructions on the acquisition of the target language feature. This study examined the effects of dictogloss on both listening comprehension and grammar learning, compared with the traditional focus-on-formS. The study found that the dictogloss instruction was beneficial to Korean EFL learners on both listening and grammar learning in total. However, it seemed that the beneficial effects of dictogloss were influenced by students' proficiency levels. One one hand, the low level students could be constrained by a limited processing capacity during the task. In other words, they had difficulty in reconstructing the text while focusing on listening comprehension. On the other hand, the high level students' achievement was influenced by their motivational factors such attention, intensity, persistence, and WTC (Willingness to Comprehend). Finally, students' motivational factors were positively correlated with dictogloss, but negatively with the traditional focus-on-formS. Pedagogical implications were discussed.