A Study of Meaning-focused and Form-focused Tasks on L2 Vocabulary Acquisition of Low and Intermediate Levels

Abstract

While the literature extensively discusses the benefits of form-focused instructions for grammatical aspects, there has been limited research exploring the impact of form-focused tasks on second language vocabulary acquisition. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of meaning-focused and form-focused (both non-contrastive and contrastive) tasks on the vocabulary learning of low and intermediate-level students in Korean college settings. The results revealed that the meaning-focused group demonstrated vocabulary learning gains only in the posttest, whereas both form-focused tasks resulted in significant improvement in both the posttest and delayed test. This suggests that students derived greater benefits from the form-focused tasks compared to the meaning-focused task in terms of L2 vocabulary learning. Additionally, the low proficiency group benefitted more from the non-contrastive form-focused task, while the intermediate group benefitted more from the contrastive form-focused task. The study will delve into the theoretical implications and discuss the pedagogical implications arising from these findings.