FOCUS ON FORM: KEEPING IT SIMPLE, PERSONAL, AND USEFUL

By Peter Robinson

Key points: (1) Stress and intonation carry important information and this needs to be focused on in classes (2) Perhaps the best time to focus on language problems is when they interfere with communication. Students do not want to hear an unnecessary exposition by the teacher on, for example, the role of stress and intonation, but when a problem occurs, it provides evidence for the NEED for focus on form, and a useful context for it.


I used to teach English for Academic Purposes at the University of Bahrain. My students were Arabic native speakers from the various Gulf States. Arabic, like French, tends to contribute stress evenly on each syllable unlike English which makes much more use if stress to establish rhythm. So Arabic is often called a syllable-timed language, and English is called stress-timed language. I had never thought of drawing my students’ attention to this, because when we did listening comprehension exercises, it was always in the context of listening to lectures, or other activities based on their real life needs.

One day though, I took the opportunity to explain the difference. We used a textbook on study skills written by Richard Yorkey. As many Americans will know, the stress in on the first syllable in Yorkey’s name. So I finished my lesson and I told my class, “Remember to bring Yorkey to the next lesson”. Next lesson I went through the usual greeting and warm up, then told them to take out their books. There was a general classroom-wide rustle, as they unpacked their bags. Books were on the tables within a minute or so.

But I noticed one of my students had no books. I asked her, “Did you forget your study skills books today?” There was nothing but a pencil and a bunch of keys on her desk. “No”, she said, “I didn’t forget, but I thought you said bring your key!” At that point, I decided the time was right for a moment’s focus on form, with her and her classmates. I kept the explanation as simple as I could, then got her to share a colleague’s Yorkey, and went on with the lesson.