Effect of Focus on Form on Vocabulary Acquisition in Computer-Assisted Learning

Abstract

This study analyzes the impact of focus on form on task-based contextual word acquisition to inform EFL vocabulary learning in a computer-assisted learning environment, with the goal of gaining a better understanding of the cognitive processes behind vocabulary acquisition. A classroom experiment was conducted at a high school in Fujian, China, to investigate two vocabulary acquisition settings for intermediate-level EFL students: maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal. The results showed that participants in the elaborative rehearsal group outperformed those who recited vocabulary in the maintenance rehearsal condition on the word recall and recognition test. The outcome also indicated that by practicing the input and output of the target words with contextual information in sentence rewriting, the focus-on-form impact of elaborative rehearsal promotes semantic and word form processing.