The use of dictogloss in the learning of a foreign language

Abstract

The Communicative Teaching Method was a language teaching methodology very popular in the 70’s and 80’s of the previous century. Its main emphasis was on second language (L2) use and, therefore, the teaching of grammar was considered pedantic (Mitchell, 2000) and avoided because some researchers claimed that it would not benefit learners. However, studies on Canadian immersion programs showed that even after many hours of exposure to the target language in communicative situations, learners had problems with formal aspects of language and their accuracy levels were very low. Thus, a return to teaching grammar in the L2 was in order. Long (1991) argued for what he called a return to a focus on form, understood as integrating attention to formal aspects of language but always within a communicative setting. Dictogloss (Wajnryb, 1990) is precisely a task that meets those requirements, attracting learners’ attention to form while they complete meaningful tasks in the L2 classroom.

The aim of the present paper is to present some of the theoretical arguments that support the use of form-focused tasks and to review a selection of research studies that have used dictogloss as a data-gathering tool. The research studies involve both adults and children as participants in English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) settings. The studies showed that dictogloss enables learners to focus on formal aspects of the target language, allowing them to develop their knowledge on the L2 while they complete communicative tasks. Moreover, dictogloss allows learners to work on the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and it seems a useful task to be incorporated in language learning classes with adults and children, as its content can be adapted depending on their proficiency level.