From form to meaning: evidence from the design, implementation and analysis of a focused task

Abstract

This study reports on the design, implementation and analysis of a task cycle(Ske han, 1998) comprising two grammar exercises, a focused task (Ellis,2003) and a communicative task administered to 47 EFL learners in 10intact classes in Brazil. Results suggest that focused tasks may help learnersautomatize specific linguistic forms, freeing up cognitive resources to focus onmeaning, thus fostering the acquisition of complex linguistic structures in L2.Results are discussed in terms of psycholinguistic accounts of skill buildingwhich view the acquisition of language as the automatization of processeswhich develop out of controlled processes (McLaughlin & Heredia, 1996).