A study of focus-on-form instruction to develop online college English conversation class

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of focus-on-form instruction (FFI) to increase the effect on online English conversation class for college EFL students. In the extracurricular program, 227 students who voluntarily participated in the non-faced online college English conversation class were recruited for the study. After 4 weeks of the program, participants were asked to complete the reflection reports. Since 2020, the pandemic period of COVID-19 in Korea, English conversation classes, which have more opportunities to have face-to-face interaction, have encouraged to be redesigned in accordance with the online English learning settings, and there were several studies to review the effect of online English learning. In this study, the isolated FFI is implemented to complement the interaction between the instructor and students during class, and participants’ reflections were collected and analyzed. In the finding, the isolated FFI, the English grammar-based instruction was reported as a positive facilitator to encourage more students to sustain in the class and showed the increased class satisfaction as a result. Since some meaningful suggestions have been found in this study, we expect the improved program to reflect these points in the future program process. The further pedagogical implication is discussed in the study