ABSTRACT
In form-focused instruction, a distinction is made between incidental focus on form and planned focus on form. The former involves the use of unfocused communicative tasks designed to elicit general samples of the language rather than specific forms. The latter involves the use of focused tasks, i.e., communicative tasks that have been designed to elicit the use of a specific linguistic form in the context of meaning-centered language use. In this case, the focus on form is predetermined. Although it is broadly agreed that FoFs develops explicit knowledge of grammar rules, studies have reported mixed effects with regard to the effect of FoF. Importantly, the question whether the differential gains of these two subtypes vary according to the salience of the target grammatical feature remains unexplored. To address these gaps, this chapter presents the design and results of a classroom intervention that compares the effects of planned and incidental FoF in the acquisition of referential asymmetries (demonstratives and clitics). Importantly, to determine whether the effect of each type could vary according to feature-inherent salience, gains in demonstratives (stand-alone) and object and prepositional clitics (affixed) were differentiated in the analysis. The chapter presents the effects of each type in the development of explicit and implicit knowledge.
