Incidental Focus on Form in an EFL Talk-show Class

Most of the recent studies on incidental focus on form in EFL contexts have been conducted in textbook-based EFL classes where opportunities for meaning-based interaction and communicative negotiation of ideas were limited in length and scope. In talk-show classes where there are normally no predefined textbooks or linguistic focus, both EFL teachers and learners feel compelled to get engaged in meaningful interactions while drawing attention to language on a temporary and needs-driven basis incidentally. This study investigated the rate of reactive and preemptive focus on form in a talk-show discussion class. To this end, eight hours of classroom interactions between a teacher and his 16 male students in an intermediate talk-show class, where the primary attention was on negotiation of ideas and meaningful interaction, were observed and audio-recorded. The findings revealed that reactive FFEs were the most frequent type of incidental focus on form. Also, the linguistic focus of reactive and preemptive FFEs were primarily grammar and vocabulary oriented respectively. This study has implication for the teachers to think about activities they can incorporate into their lessons that provide learners with opportunities to attend to incidental FFEs.