German Linguistics Commons^™

Form Or Function First In Foreign Language Classrooms?, Senta Görtler

Dissertations and Theses

The study was inspired by continuous discussion in the field of second language acquisition and teaching on the role of grammar instruction in successful language learning. Traditionally foreign language and second language classrooms have been taught with a pedagogical focus on language structure. More recently there has been support for second language classrooms focusing on content, function, or communication rather than form. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to compare the effectiveness of an innovative function-based classroom with a traditional form-based classroom.

During a ten-week period, one class of Intermediate German was taught in a form-based classroom while another …