The effects of Output-Based Focus on Form on Japanese EFL Learners’ Implicit Knowledge Development through a Text-Reconstruction Story-Retelling Task

This research proposal of a quasi-experimental study aims at exploring the effects of a textreconstruction output task called Story-Retelling (SR) on Japanese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ implicit knowledge development on three types of English relative clauses (RCs). Thirty university students are randomly assigned to two experimental groups and a control group. Each experimental group receives two different form-focused instruction (FFI): the SR task and explicit grammar explanation of the target-linguistic form. Responding to a measuring issue of previous effect-of-instruction studies, an Oral Elicited Imitation (OEI) test and an untimed fill-in-the-blank test will be administered to accurately measure learners’ implicit and explicit knowledge development respectively. Differential effects of the instructional treatments depending on the degree of typological markedness and processing difficulty of the three RC types are also explored. The findings of the study will provide empirical explanations whether and how an output practice conducted through the SR task contributes to L2 learners’ implicit knowledge development. Considering the relative easiness of the practical application of the SR task in L2 teaching, the findings also provide L2 teachers with pedagogical implications on how to effectively conduct focus on form (FonF) instruction in the L2 classroom.